Corso di Laurea magistrale (ordinamento ex D.M. 270/2004)in Lingue e letterature europee americane e post coloniali

Tesi di Laurea

Time Control in Diana Wynne Jones’s Fiction: The Chronicles of Chrestomanci

RelatoreCh.ma Prof. Laura Tosi

CorrelatoreCh.mo Prof. Marco Fazzini

LaureandoGiada NerozziMatricola 841931

Anno Accademico 2013 / 2014

Ca’ FoscariDorsoduro 324630123 Venezia

Table of Contents1Introducing Diana Wynne Jones........................................................................................................3

1.1A Summary of Jones's Biography...............................................................................................31.2An Overview of Wynne Jones's Narrative Features and Themes...............................................41.3Diana Wynne Jones and Literary Criticism................................................................................6

2Time and Space Treatment in Chrestomanci Series...........................................................................72.1Introducing Time........................................................................................................................72.2The Nature of Time Travel.......................................................................................................10

2.2.1Time Traveller and Time according to Wynne Jones.......................................................102.2.2Common Subjects in Time Travel Stories........................................................................112.2.3Comparing and Contrasting Diana Wynne Jones with Other Fantasy Children's Novelists...................................................................................................................................................15

2.3Time-Space Relation in Two Novels by Diana Wynne Jones..................................................202.3.1Introducing Space.............................................................................................................322.3.2Time Versus Space: Geography Rewriting in The Chronicles of Chrestomanci..............37

3Splitting Worlds................................................................................................................................423.1Introducing Parallel Universes..................................................................................................423.2Multiverse in Jones's The Chronicles of Chrestomanci............................................................573.3Traces of Heterotopia in The Chronicles of Chrestomanci......................................................69

4Time, History and Folkloric Tradition: an indissoluble link............................................................754.1Jones's History Rewriting.........................................................................................................75

4.1.1Diana Wynne Jones and the Folkloric Tradition...............................................................855Conclusion........................................................................................................................................95

A general overview

Recently, the popularity of the British author Diana Wynne Jones has increased

so much that also the literary critic, which until now has been snubbing her production,

has begun to examine her works. Maria Nikolajeva, Farah Mendlesohn, Charles Butler

and Colin Manlove are only a few examples of scholars who have widely analysed

Jones's novels. Maria Nikolajeva has highlighted that one of the main themes in Jones's

production is linked with the defamiliarization technique. Moreover, in her essay

Heterotopia as a Reflection of Postmodern Consciousness in the Works of Diana Wynne

Jones (2002), Nikolajeva analyses Jones's novels through the use of the idea of

heterotopia. Farah Mendlesohn dedicates an entire book to Diana Wynne Jones and she

examines deeply the dynamics and the connection between time and space. Charles

Butler has presented an overview of Jones's biography, works and narrative features.

Butler's work is really effective because he compares and contrasts Jones's production

with the production of other influential authors as Penelope Lively, Alan Garner and

Susan Cooper. Colin Manlove retraces all the fundamental steps which set up the

history of children's literature and he dedicates a large space to Jones's analysis.

I have decided to focus on Diana Wynne Jones's novels because I believe that

she was an incredibly talented author who, thanks to her innovations, has given her

contribution to modern children's fantasy. Through my dissertation, I want to

demonstrate the complexity of Jones's novels and also how her production has

contributed to the renewal of fantasy literature. Specifically, Jones's production is a

cornerstone of modern children's fantasy, which has inspired important authors as Philip

Pullman, Neil Gaiman and J.K. Rowling.

In my dissertation, I have touched on Jones's biography to highlight how her

personal life has influenced her entire production and I have offered an overview of

Jones's narrative feature and themes. In the last part of this chapter I have focused on the

relation between literary criticism and Jones.

The following chapter addresses the issue of time treatment in the Chrestomanci Series.

I have offered a brief explanation of the notion of time and I have focused on the nature

of time travel. In particular, I have explained Jones's idea of time traveller, I have

presented the common subjects in time travel stories and I have compared and

contrasted Jones with other relevant fantasy children's authors. The other main section

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of this chapter concentrates on the relation between time and space in two Jones's

books. First of all, I have introduced the concept of space and then I have spoken about

Jones's geography rewriting.

The third chapter addresses the concept of parallel worlds. Therefore, after having

introduced the concept of parallel universes, I have focused on multiverse in

Chrestomanci series and I have concluded this section by highlighting traces of

heterotopia.

The last chapter of my dissertation focuses again on time, but here time is understood as

history. Indeed, I have focused on the rewriting of history in The Chronicles of

Chrestomanci and I have analysed the relationship between Diana Wynne Jones and the

Anglo-Saxon tradition.

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1 Introducing Diana Wynne Jones

1.1 A Summary of Jones's Biography

Diana Wynne Jones was one of the most creative and prolific modern children's

fantasy authors who wrote some forty volumes since the 1970s. Jones was born in

London in 1934 in a well-educated family who allowed her to get in touch with

literature. She was dyslexic and she started to write stories as a training against her

disease. She attended St. Anne college in Oxford, where she demonstrated that she was

an extraordinary student. The time she spent in Oxford was precious and useful because

C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien were both lecturing there and deeply inspired her

production. Certainly, she would have been a different author without the influence of

C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. Jones borrowed from Lewis the creation of multiple

worlds while her relationship with Tolkien was different because she did not simply

want to repeat what he had done with The Lord of the Rings (1954).

She married John Burrow and they had three children who encouraged Jones to

develop her creativity.

Unfortunately, Diana Wynne Jones died after a long battle with cancer in March 2011.

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1.2 An Overview of Wynne Jones's Narrative Features and Themes

Diana Wynne Jones was a clever innovator who rewrote the rules of fantasy

during almost three decades and she contributed also to the creation of a new fantasy

area: setting her books mainly in cities and towns, she developed what nowadays is

commonly known as urban fantasy. Her fantasy is original and forward-looking but

without forgetting myth and folktales.

Jones's books are characterized by irony, humour, intelligence and brilliant

inventiveness and they are addressed to children as an encouragement to use their mind

properly and to help them deal with life. Through her narrative devices she explored

time, identity and human nature without sentimentalism. Moreover, many of Wynne

Jones's stories are about children with extraordinary capabilities who are going to fulfil

their hidden potential and achieve confidence and knowledge. These children are

ignorant of their own identity and talents, so they live initially in a setting of neglect and

exploitation which is created by their parents who want to deceive them. The place in

which these exploitations and deceptions happen is the home, which is characterized as

a dangerous place, a fragile refuge which cannot protect the child neither

metaphorically, nor physically.

The complex condition of Jones's characters seems to be autobiographical and the book

that, more than others, seems to reflect Jones's own childhood, is A Tale of Time City

(1987).

She highlights some important psychological aspects, typical of human

condition, in her analysis of behaviour and in the way she describes children's fears.

Moreover, since she has always been fascinated by the reaction of different people to

difficult conditions, she find fantasy and magic to be the best way to satisfy her

curiosity. Magic and magical events are fundamental in developing her plots and her

non-conformism is clear in her idea of magic. She does not define magic only as good

or bad: on the contrary, her magic expresses every shade of these ethical principles.

Thus, Jones's magic is morally ambiguous and also the users are always fighting against

the temptation to treat people as objects of manipulation.

Furthermore, Jones explores the borders between good and evil also in the relationship

between children and authority. Thus, in most of her works she deals with rebellion

against society, family and the judicial system.

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Jones's plots are not easy and their complexity has increased progressively book

after book. Another peculiar element which makes Jones's production more complex, is

about the reading order of those books which form two of her series. In other words,

series books are commonly read following a chronological publishing order that

coincides with the development of the story. However, this method is not recommended

for Jones's books. In fact, Jones herself suggested to take no notice of publishing

succession because it does not correspond to the story development. This original

feature belongs to The Dalemark Quartet and The Chronicles of Chrestomanci.

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1.3 Diana Wynne Jones and Literary Criticism

Diana Wynne Jones was a very important author in the background of fantasy

literature; however, some critics as Teya Rosenberg, observes that she moves between

fantasy and science fiction.

In spite of her brilliance, she was partially excluded in critical discussion of late-

century British children's literature. Behind this neglect there were reasons which are

unknown also nowadays. Luckily, in the 1990s critics took notice of what they were

overlooking and, in recent times, they have started studying her narrative and her

attitude towards genre contamination. This new attention is partially due to the great

success reached by the Harry Potter books which have encouraged worldwide

publishers to invest in school stories about magic. Of course Wynne Jones wrote school

stories with magic long before Rowling.

Despite criticism, Jones has been appreciated all over the world and even in

Italy, although her production is not yet completely translated into Italian. The Italian

publisher which has translated and published the majority of Jones's books is Salani,

which focused its attention mostly on The Chronicles of Chrestomanci. Additionally,

another Italian publisher named Kappa Edizioni has published Howl's Moving Castle,

which is one of the most important books by Jones. However, the story of Howl's

Moving Castle was already popular in Italy because of Miyazaki's movie, based on it.

The movie was a worldwide success and was nominated for the the 78t h Academy

Awards for Best Animated Feature.

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2 Time and Space Treatment in Chrestomanci Series

2.1 Introducing Time

Time has always been considered one of the most important elements in

children's literature, especially in fantasy fiction. The interest about the nature and the

treatment of time goes back to the nineteenth century and Alice in Wonderland (1865) is

the most important example of this study. However, the importance of time reached its

apex in the twentieth century, when fantasy was characterized by time slips stories. In

that period, time became a very confusing theme which included parallel worlds and the

coexistence of past and present. In other words, according to Colin Manlove, this kind

of fantasy is more extreme than the preceding and

worlds exist in parallel rather than in sequence, and the idea of linear influence is

less marked, to the point where plots often involve the discovery of why things are

as they are, rather than development to something entirely new.1

The type of fantasy literature in which there is an alteration of time, is commonly

known as time-travel fantasy or time-slip story and it tells stories in which the

characters can skip to various ages or to a specific period. Moving in parallel times is an

often accidental action and the character skips to another time in multiple ways:

crossing an entrance, by an amulet or a magic object, thanks to an helper, through the

power of imagination or in a dream.

Time fantasy has a very complex structure because it deals almost always with a

parallel time that can anticipate or follow the starting time which represents the main

reality. The starting time, in which the protagonist lives, is commonly known as primary

time while the parallel time which belongs to another dimension, is commonly known

as secondary time.

Another peculiar element which makes time fantasy very intricate, is linked with the

flow of both times. The primary time does not flow with the same speed as parallel

time; in other words, primary time can be slower or can be faster than parallel time and

1 Manlove, Colin, From Alice to Harry Potter: Children's Fantasy in England, Christchurch, New Zealand, Cybereditions Corporation, 2003.

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when the character goes back to the primary time, things have changed.

In science fiction, characters travel mainly toward the future while in fantasy

literature characters travel also toward the past. Usually, the traveller in time is a child

and the journey into the past expresses a pedagogical and didactic aspect. In fact,

stepping back in time, the child can learn customs and traditions of a specific age.

Undoubtedly, one of the fantasy authors who dealt considerably with time was

Diana Wynne Jones. Her conception of time and time travel has been deeply inspired by

theories of time and, above all, she has used McTaggart's theory as a starting point. John

McTaggart was a metaphysician who spoke about the nature of time in his book The

Unreality of Time, published in 1908. According to him, there are two ways in which an

event is located in the temporal order of things. The first way is called A-series or

relative time while the second way is called B-series or absolute time. It is a very

complex theory, however as Mendlesohn observes, even though

Jones used B-series concepts of time and the theoretical models of time travel with

great facility, it is in her manipulation of A-series time that her work achieved its

fullest complexity.2

Jones has established her view of time also on Plato's conception of time

untouched. Plato defined time in one his most important dialogues called Timaeus (360

BC). According to Plato, time exists only in relation to eternity and it is defined as an

image which arises only through a perpetual movement.

Jones has combined Plato's point of view with the idea of space-time block, which is

none other than an indivisible dimension. In A tale of Time City (1987), her combination

is clear: the space-time block is a dimension from one can exit and return to. In other

words, Vivian, the protagonist, moves from her planet and thus from a primary time, to

Time City which is a city that exists outside the time. Jones, to create a dimension like

that, has constructed a time circular sequence: the part of primary time flows in one

direction, while the part concerning the time of the City, flows on the opposite direction.

However, since they are two space-time blocks, it is possible to move from one to

another.

As Mendlesohn points out,

2 Mendlesohn, Farah, Diana Wynne Jones: Children's literature and the Fantastic Tradition, NewYork, Routledge Taylor and Francis Group, 2005, p. 68

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Jones has woven time narratives into the body of her text: she does not simply

write about time travel but uses words to construct the movement.3

Necessarily, time travel leads to the creation of alternative temporal worlds and

this is one of the most important and brilliant aspects in Jones's production.

3 Ibidem, p.XXX

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2.2 The Nature of Time Travel

As has been argued in the previous paragraph, the concept of time fulfills a key

role not only in literature but also in physics, science and philosophy. Even though

many scholars have studied the nature of time, even nowadays we do not know exactly

what time is; thus, our imagination runs wild and the result is time travel.

The fundamental question, at the heart of time travel, concerns the way in which

someone moves in time and space.

The first book which deals with this problem is The Time Machine (1895) by H.G.

Wells; here, Wells describes a four-dimensional time-space category and describes the

use of a time machine to travel. However, the answer to this question is linked with

Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity. According to Einstein, time and space cannot be

determined separately from one another, thus time is a fourth dimension on the same

footing with height, length and width. He states also that the laps of time between two

events is relative because the reference frame of who is observing, moves with a relative

speed.

Science-fiction starts from this theory and focuses on time travel in itself, and

often a time machine becomes the necessary mode of transportation. On the contrary, in

fantasy fiction, the traveller in time does not use a time machine and the travel is not

rationally explained through scientific mechanisms.

2.2.1 Time Traveller and Time according to Wynne Jones

According to some critics, Diana Wynne Jones was inclined to mix fantasy

features with typical elements of science-fiction; however, Chrestomanci, her most

famous time traveller, belongs more to fantasy fiction than to science-fiction.

Chrestomanci is the title of a British Government employee and

“the job Chrestomanci has is to make sure this world is not run entirely by

witches […] It is a big job.”4

4

Wynne Jones, Diana, The Chronicles of Chrestomanci: Charmed Life, New York, HarperCollins,

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It is not an hereditary title and the person who plays the part of Chrestomanci must be

an enchanter with nine lives. This kind of person is extremely rare.

Jones shows her creativity and her ability to simplify things in the way in which

Chrestomanci moves in time; he does not use a time machine or an amulet to travel: it is

enough that someone says his name. Jones does not explain the way in which

Chrestomanci crosses different dimensions, he simply appears.

Time plays a key role in Jones's The Chronicles of Chrestomanci. However, the

idea of time, in this text does not focus on dates. Jones alters time and moves her

characters from different dimensions with different times without giving dates. In other

words, even if Jones situates precisely her stories in a timeline, she does not explicitly

say in which age each story begins.

On the other hand, she offers the reader the possibility to contextualise the periods,

through the insertion of precise elements. For instance, in Conrad's Fate (2005) many

characters use computers and cameras, thus the reader can contextualise the story in a

contemporary epoch.

2.2.2 Common Subjects in Time Travel Stories

Both in science-fiction and in fantasy fiction, time-travel stories are central subjects.

The first important theme is linked with a logical paradox: in fact, it is not clear if it is

possible to go back into the past without altering it. The present cannot exist without the

past because it is the result of past events and choices.

In science-fiction and fantasy fiction, almost every time a traveller wonders

about the possibility of jumping backward to modify the past and change the present.

Frequently, this query represents a psychological aspect of human behaviour because it

gives the illusion to avoid regrets. However, as Gertrud Lehnert-Rodiek points out, this

psychological aspect is strongly evident in children's literature more than in adult

literature. The reason for this is linked with the function of time travel. Time travel

usually happens during only a particular phase of childhood: in other words, time travel

happens during the period in which the child obtain self awareness. Thus, through time

travel, the child can live new experiences which can help him deal with difficult

situations.

2001, pp.257-258.

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For instance, in some time-travel stories for children, the main character is an

orphan who jumps into the past to know his origins and his parents, or to prevent their

death. However, in fantasy fiction, it is more common for the main character to jump

into the past for a communal good: for instance, the hero must prevent something from

happening or must change the result of a battle, to save the future of mankind.

Diana Wynne Jones also dealt with the paradox of travel backward without

altering the past; however, her fiction focuses on the consequences, more than the

reasons for these changes. In The Chronicles of Chrestomanci, Jones always plays with

time so this logical paradox is not so uncommon; however, the book in which, more

than others, the query about changing the past has a key role, is Witch Week (1982).

Witch Week, apparently is not like the other volumes of The Chronicles of

Chrestomanci because it is a school story set in a world in which using magic is

forbidden. Immediately, the reader is surprised because during a lesson, the teacher

receives a note that claims “Someone in this class is a witch”5. Actually, almost

everyone is a witch and at the end of the story, Chrestomanci turns up to make an end of

witch hunt.

Anyway, the most interesting thing about the nature of that prohibition, is linked with

changes of time and the choice to change or not to change an event into the past. Thus,

Chrestomanci explains that:

A surprisingly small change always alters the new world almost out of

recognition. Except in the case of yours, where we all now are. […] There is

something badly wrong in this world.6

Jones shows all her narrative ability and her creativity: she explains the nature of the

query about altering time, using witchcraft. In other words, the prohibition of witchcraft

in the world in which Witch Week is set, is used as the basis for comparison with the

permission to do sorcery in Chrestomanci's world. So, while in Witch Week world

practicing magic is absolutely forbidden, in Chrestomanci's world it is normal. Indeed,

the world in which Witch Week is set, is exactly the product of a past event which has

suffered a change: thus, this world has been created from Chrestomanci's world which

has been split into another one.

I have often wondered why there is so little witchcraft in my ward's world. I

5 Wynne Jones, Diana, The Chronicles of Chrestomanci: Witch Week, New York, HarperCollins, 2001,p.279

6 Ibidem, p. 498

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see not that it is all in this one. Something – I do not know what- has caused

your world to separate from the other one, taking all the witchcraft with it. But

instead of breaking off cleanly, it has somehow remained partly joined to the

first world, so that it almost is that world. I think there has been some kind of

accident.7

The second important theme discussed both in science-fiction and in fantasy

fiction, is linked with the future. As happens to time travellers to the past, also the time

travellers to the future may be driven by the desire to change the present. In other

words, the future time traveller wonders if it is possible to know what will happen, in

order to do or not to do something. However, especially in science-fiction, the time

traveller to the future is interested in the possibility of meeting himself/herself in the

future. As the time traveller wonders if it is possible to interact with his future version,

he also wonders about the consequences of this meeting.

The third important topic shared by science-fiction and fantasy fiction, is linked

with objects and time travel. In other words, characters wonder about the possibility or

the impossibility to carry something during the time travel: from a world to another,

from a time to another. About this topic, a lot has been said and there are many

viewpoints. In fantasy literature, especially for children, there are some objects which

work as an evidence. That is to say, often the character must bring an object to

demonstrate that he has truly travelled into another time or into another dimension.

Usually, the character who travels to the past can bring an object with him into

the present, while the opposite is not possible. In other words, the traveller backward

cannot bring in the past, something which belongs to the present. This impossibility is a

way to protect and prevent a change in the past.

This “rule” must be followed also by the character who travels to the future: also the

traveller forward cannot bring anything with him into the present. In this case, the

character does not anticipate anything.

This theme is developed also in Jones's The Chronicles of Chrestomanci, and

obviously the text gives an original interpretation of this “convention”. Firstly, Jones

deals with this theme in The Lives of Christopher Chant (1988), a novel which explains

how Christopher Chant lived before becoming the present Chrestomanci. Here, Jones

describes Christopher's unhappy childhood and the progressive acceptance of his

7 Ibidem, p.499

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destiny. At the beginning of the book, Christopher is a young boy who wants to please

his distant parents and considers his Uncle Ralph as a guide. But, Uncle Ralph is not

what he seems and encourages Christopher to make night-trips to other dimensions only

for his own purposes. He wants to enlarge his power and in order to do that, he needs

Dragon's blood and he asks Christopher to bring it back from other world. Dragon's

blood is dangerous and bringing it from other worlds is the only way to obtain it,

because in series Twelve, which is a parallel world, it is forbidden by the law. However,

this is not the only thing that Christopher takes from a world to another, to satisfy his

uncle. During a journey to another related world, Christopher meets the Living Asheth.

The Living Asheth is a young girl belonging to Series Ten, who has been chosen from a

lot of candidates to become a Goddess and to live in Asheth Temple, surrounded by

cats. She is really bored because she can read only the educational books which are

stored within the Temple. Since Christopher must bring to his uncle one of Asheth's

cats, he agrees to exchange the cat with books to read.

Obviously, even though in Jones's books there is an original interpretation of characters

who carry objects from a world to another, also in these books this action provokes

consequences. Through dragon's blood, Uncle Ralph tries both to defeat Chrestomanci

and to conquer his castle. However, the Living Asheth suffers more the consequences:

through the books she learns something about her destiny and she turns against her role

to obtain freedom and education like a normal girl.

Diana Wynne Jones keeps developing this theme also in another book belonging

to The Chronicles of Chrestomanci: Conrad's Fate (2005). In this book, Christopher

Chant is a teenager who escapes from his mentor, the Chrestomanci Gabriel de Witt, to

find his friend Millie, The Living Asheth. He is hiding with a false name in Stallery

Mansion and he has been selected as butler-in-training with another boy. Soon they

become friends. This other boy is Conrad Tesdinic and he is hiding too with a false

name, to accomplish his purpose. Conrad's uncle believes that Conrad is going to die

within a year, except if the boy kills the person who, in Stallery Mansion, changes the

normal flow of events in the world.

However, things at Stallery are not as ordinary as they appear.

One morning, Christopher and Conrad decide to venture into a forbidden area of

Stallery and Conrad decides to bring with him his camera. Unfortunately, the witch who

has imprisoned Millie, discovers Conrad and before she can cast a spell

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He does the only thing he can manage. He raises his camera and takes her

picture. […] The flash goes off right in her face.8

Obviously, the witch is absolutely horrified and scared because she belongs to another

world and another time, moreover she does not know that Conrad is not going to hurt

anyone.

Through the use of the camera, the text demonstrates yet again, great creativity and it

reinterprets a popular subject matter. Moreover, it is interesting that a contemporary and

technologically advanced element which works following scientific procedures,

operates also in another dimension where magic is predominant. It is interesting also

that Conrad's picture even if lacks magic in itself, becomes a magical instrument:

“I did not mean to kill her”, Conrad said.

“Oh, you did not kill her,” Gabriel de Witt, to his astonishment, replied. “You

merely trapped her soul. We found her body in a coma in one of those

kitchens, while we were exploring the alternate buildings, and we returned it

to Seven D, where I am pleased to say that they promptly put it in prison. She

was wanted in that world for killing several enchanters in order to obtain their

magical powers [..]. We have of course returned the woman's soul to Seven D

now, so that she may stand a trial in the proper way”.9

In this case, bringing an object to another time does not provoke bad or irreparable

consequences: on the contrary, it allows the arrest of a dangerous murderer.

2.2.3 Comparing and Contrasting Diana Wynne Jones with OtherFantasy Children's Novelists

As has been written previously, many fantasy children's novelists have dealt

with time- travel stories and each of them, has used a personal approach. Now, I would

compare Diana Wynne Jones with some of these novelists.

First of all, I would briefly contrast the conception of time and history, in A

Traveller in Time (1939) written by Alison Uttley and in Jones's books. Jones's novels

are totally different from Uttley's fiction basically because in Jones's stories, time is not

8 Wynne Jones, Diana, The Chronicles of Chrestomanci: Conrad's Fate, New York, HarperCollins,2008, p.183

9 Ibidem, p.304

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static and her characters do not travel only and always into one specific epoch. In A

Traveller in Time, Penelope goes back only to the sixteenth century and when she

comes back to her epoch, she does not remember anything. In this way, Uttley avoids

the problem of changing the past which would be in contrast with her static idea of

history. Indeed, Uttley conceives history as something which keeps repeating itself and

the plot gradually develops a philosophy of history. Moreover, as Gertrud Lehnert-

Rodiek points out, the real message of this novel is linked with the simultaneity of time

and life; however, the beneficiaries of this message are those who live following

traditional values.

In the second instance, I would compare Diana Wynne Jones's novels with

Tom's Midnight Garden (1958) written by Ann Philippa Pearce. Tom's Midnight

Garden is one of the most important time- slips stories. Pearce, as Jones will do later,

makes time travel a natural and a fundamental part of the plot; in other words, both in

Pearce and in Jones's novels, time travel is not merely part of the background but it is

essential to the progress of the story.

Tom spends some time with his uncle and his aunt in a flat without a garden. He cannot

play because he is sick, so he feels lonely and overwhelmed. One night, Tom is lying

awake in bed and he hears thirteen tolls, coming from a grandfather clock. Intrigued,

Tom decides to go downstairs to check the clock. When he arrives downstairs, he

discovers that a garden has appeared. Every night at midnight, he comes back to the

garden and he enjoys different seasons and moments of the day which flow without a

chronological order. Soon, he meets Hatty and they become friends. However, the time

of Tom's world is different from Hatty's because she belongs to another epoch. In other

words, Hatty is an adult woman who lives at the top of the house and who dreams of her

childhood. Since she has always wanted a playmate, she meets Tom in a parallel time.

The mode of travel across time used by Pearce is, at the same time, similar and

different to that used by Jones. It is similar because both Pearce and Jones's characters

do not use a time machine to travel; on the other hand it is different because Pearce's

characters do not appear when someone calls their name, as Jones's character does.

Indeed, Chrestomanci simply emerges without rational reasons, while Tom travels

thanks to the power of wishing and dreaming. Moreover, it is not clear whether Tom has

effectively travelled into the past or he has simply dreamed Hatty's dream.

Jones differs from Pearce also in the treatment of moving objects across different times.

Jones's characters deal with the consequences of carrying something from a dimension

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to another, whereas Pearce's characters simply move objects without worrying about the

consequences. Moreover, in Pearce's novel, objects act as a vehicle of memory and a

reminder of the past.

Now, I shall compare Diana Wynne Jones's approach to time travel, with that of

Susan Cooper. Over the years, many critics have compared Diana Wynne Jones to

Susan Cooper because they are both British fantasy children's novelists who began to

write in the 1970's.

Cooper's most famous series is The Dark is Rising Sequence (1965-1977) and the key

book is the second one: The Dark is Rising, published in 1972. This series embodies

perfectly one of the most common themes in fantasy fiction, which is the opposition and

the battle between good and evil. The main character of the second book is Will

Stanton, an eleven-year- old boy, who discovers he is an “Old One”. He is one of the

warriors for the Light, thus he must fight the powers of darkness and evil.

As Lehnert-Rodiek states,

The powers of evil are able to travel back and forth different periods of

history. Thus time becomes, on the one hand, the battle itself and on the other

hand, a means of fighting, of persecution and escape.10

Cooper and Jones share, more or less, the same conception of time. In The Dark is

Rising, Cooper shows openly her ideas, making one of her characters say that

all times co-exist, and the future can sometimes affect the past, even though

the past is a road that leads to the future.11

Moreover, both Jones and Cooper do not explain explicitly the mechanisms of travel

across different times. By contrast, in Cooper's work the query about the possibility of

changing history is irrelevant to the development of the story, even though the

protagonist wonders about this possibility. Furthermore, Jones and Cooper differ also in

the way they conceive time travel. According to Jones's viewpoint, time travel plays a

fundamental role in the story, whereas in Cooper's The Dark is Rising, time travel

serves only to intensify the mystic and magical atmosphere.

10 Lehnert-Rodiek, Gertrud, “Fantastic Children's Literature and Travel in Time”, Phaedrus XIII (1998):61-72.

11 Cooper, Susan, The Dark is Rising, Harmondswoth, Puffin, 1976, p.65.

17

Finally, I would compare Diana Wynne Jones with J.R. Rowling, a British

fantasy children's novelist who has become famous and has reached a worldwide

success with her Harry Potter books (1997-2007). This school story is set mainly in the

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and it is about the adventure of a young

wizard with a yet-to-be announced destiny. Also in Harry Potter stories, the reader can

easily find several typical themes of fantasy fiction. Indeed, Harry is an orphan who

spent his childhood living with a family who does not love him and, through the use of

magic, he fulfils his destiny and becomes a hero. Thus, through his skills and the help of

his friends, Hermione Granger and Ronald Weasley, Harry fights and defeats Lord

Voldemort who is responsible of years of terror, destruction and death. Moreover, J.K.

Rowling based her entire series on the dichotomy between good and evil, for that

purpose she outlines Harry’s growth process as one filled with curiosity and doubt about

his origins and his true identity.

As is clear, Rowling has been deeply inspired by Jones's The Chronicles of

Chrestomanci: for instance, both Rowling's series and Jones's series are set in a magical

school, witchcraft is regulated by a Ministry and the borders between good or evil are

not always so clear. Furthermore, Rowling has been inspired also by Jones's conception

of time, thus even though the Harry Potter series is not about time travel at all,

characters often move across time. The first unconventional shift takes place at the

beginning of Harry Potter's adventures, when he is going to leave London to reach

Hogwarts castle. Hogwarts castle can be reached by train, the Hogwarts Express, which

leaves from Kings's Cross Railway Station at platform 9 ¾. This platform is invisible to

normal people and the children must run through the wall to reach a parallel platform.

Like Diana Wynne Jones, even J.K. Rowling deals with the paradox linked to

the manipulation of the past by someone who comes from the future. She treats this

theme in the third novel of the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of

Azkaban (1999). Here, professor McGonagall gives Hermione a Time-Turner, in order

to allow her to attend more than one class a time. To come back in time, Hermione must

turn the hourglass, depending on the hours she needs to travel back. However,

Hermione cannot speak about this object with anyone, including Harry and Ron,

because the Time-Turner is very dangerous. If this object should come into possession

of the wrong hands, there would be horrible consequences: many wizards, while they

were using it, died after they had killed their own version coming from the future.

However, the real meaning which lies behind Time-Tuner, is expressed in the final

18

chapter of the book during a talk between Harry and Albus Dumbledore:

"Hasn't your experience with the Time-Turner taught you anything, Harry?

The consequences of our actions are always so complicated, so diverse, that

predicting the future is a very difficult business indeed.... 12

12 Rowling, J.K., Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban, London, Bloomsbury, 1999.

19

2.3 Time-Space Relation in Two Novels by Diana Wynne Jones

As we have seen, time fulfills a fundamental element in Diana Wynne Jones's

books. The first important feature of time that has been discussed, is about time travel;

however, there is another aspect which is essential in Jones's production. This element is

important because it is about the relation between time and space which, in some way,

also allows time travel.

All the theories about time, which we have briefly discussed in the previous paragraphs,

are fundamental to understanding the time-space relation. Time-space is the dimension

in which every event happens. The time-space relation is independent from the

observer: an event occurs independently from who is present; thus it demonstrates that

time cannot be separated from space. In other words, time and space set up a single

entity which is exactly the time-space continuum.

In fantasy literature, there are a lot of novels which underline the impossibility

of treating time without treating also space. Later, we will see in detail how the relation

between time and space plays an essential role in Diana Wynne Jones's novels.

However, now I want to compare in detail this topic in Jones's The Chronicles of

Chrestomanci and in J.K. Rowlings's Harry Potter series, to demonstrate once again,

how Rowling's work has been largely influenced by Jones's works.

In the Harry Potter books, the most common means of transportation is called

Apparition and it is a sort of magical teleportation. The Apparition spell is almost

identical to Chrestomanci's way of moving across different worlds. In each case, how

the characters travel is not rationally explained: Chrestomanci simply appears when

someone calls his name while the Harry Potter characters decide autonomously to

disappear from one place and reappear in another. This spell is difficult to cast, and the

Ministry of Magic controls the issue of Apparition licences; moreover, this charm can

be dangerous because an inexperienced trainee can run the risk of being physically split,

between the starting point of the journey and its destination.

Chrestomanci appears and disappears silently, taking by surprise the people near him,

whereas Rowling's characters, sometimes are followed by cracking or popping sounds.

These sounds depend on the level of traveller's skill. In Conrad's Fate (2005), a young

Chrestomanci, Christopher Chant, tries to explain to his friend Conrad the nature of

travel across time and space:

20

Travellers, you see, are some of the few people who are always moving from

world to world. […] They go in a sort of spiral around the worlds- that was

something I did not know either, and I nearly went mad while they did.13

In her fourth book, The Goblet of Fire (2000), J.K. Rowling introduces a new type of

magical teleportation called Portkey. Even though Portkeys are similar to Apparition

spells, there are some differences. First of all, Portkeys are, as Mr. Weasley explains to

Harry,

objects that are used to transport wizards from one spot to another at a

prearranged time. […]

What sort of objects are Portkeys?" said Harry curiously.

"Well, they can be anything," said Mr. Weasley. "Unobtrusive things,

obviously, so Muggles don't go picking them up and playing with them ...

stuff they'll just think is litter...." 14

Moreover, Portkeys differ from Apparition spells because they can be used to transport

more than one person at once. However, either Apparition spells and Portkeys cannot be

used without the permission of the Department of Magical Transport. With Portkeys,

Rowling demonstrates that she has her own idea about time travel and gives an

interpretation which differs from Jones's ideas. Portkeys work as a kind of amulet that

the wizards must touch in order to travel in time, whereas Chrestomanci does not need

to touch anything.

Jones's time-space relation goes hand in hand with the relation between past and

present. Even though these two relations play a key role in several Jones's books, in The

Magicians of Caprona (1980) and Conrad's Fate (2005) they are extremely relevant to

the development of the plot.

The Magicians of Caprona is a parody of Romeo and Juliet (1594-96) in which

13

Jones, Diana Wynne, The Chronicles of Chrestomanci: Conrad's Fate, New York, HarperCollins,2008 p.121

14 Rowling, J.K., Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire, London, Bloomsbury, 2000.

21

there are two rival great magical families, which live in a imaginary and not unified

Italy. Caprona is an independent city-state ruled by a Duke. It is probably situated near

Pisa, Florence and Siena, and it has begun to decline, losing its power. The nearby states

want to take advantage of this situation, and occupy and conquer Caprona. So, the

houses of Montana and Petrocchi, which are the two most powerful houses in Caprona,

are trying to prevent this. In order to do so, they are looking for the true combination of

words of a powerful and solemn spell, known as “The Angel of Caprona”.

Unfortunately, they fail because they blame each other: the Montanas and Petrocchis

have been deadly enemies for generations, but no one remembers the reason of this

rivalry.

The situation, and therefore the rivalry, gets worse when two kids, Tonino Montana and

Angelica Petrocchi, are kidnapped by a mysterious enchanter. Of course, this

kidnapping is not by chance: the enchanter has chosen two kids apparently without

magical skills, to damage the strength of Casa Montana and Casa Petrocchi and to

distract them from the search for “The Angel of Caprona” words. The mysterious

enchanter is none other than the Duchess.

At the end of the story, with the help of Chrestomanci, they find the words, so they can

sing together “The Angel of Caprona” and save the city.

Farah Mendlesohn examines the space-time relation in The Magicians of

Caprona and she states that Jones

does not set out to manipulate our perception of time, but it is here

that we first see Jones experiment with tense and rhetorical structure

to create, in effect, a mode of time travel that is facilitated by language

rather than by visible machinery or the description of time travel.15

From the first two chapters, the text attracts the attention of the reader through

the introduction of a specific structure. This structure is none other than a narrative

experimentation through the use of rhetorical devices as, for instance, flashbacks.

According to Mendlesohn,

Jones combines the different understandings of the physics of the real time

and of time travel with the manipulation of experiential time. It is to the

15 Mendlesohn, Farah, Diana Wynne Jones: Children's Literature and the Fantastic Tradition, NewYork and London, Routledge: Taylor and Francis Group, 2005, p. 68.

22

techniques she employs to create a narrative within the mode of telling, and

the manipulation of time. This time is about the relationship of experience to

time and is simultaneously metaphysical and metaphorical.16

This structure, which is frequently related to nonfiction writing, allows the reader to

move deftly from a far distant past to the present. For instance, in the first chapter the

reader can soon recognise the first elements of a complex narrative:

The great houses of Petrocchi and Montana go back to the first founding of

the State of Caprona, seven hundred years or more ago. And they are bitter

rivals. They are not even on speaking term. If a Petrocchi and a Montana meet

in one of Caprona's narrow golden-stone streets, they turn their eyes aside and

edge the past as if they were both waling past a pig-sty. 17

This paragraph is defined by Mendlesohn as “general thesis”, which informs the reader

about something that happened in a distant past. This paragraph prepares the reader both

for the following sentence and the following narrative times, thus it functions as a

joining link. The next rhetorical element is a summary of a past event. This summary

supports and illustrates what the previous paragraph has anticipated. Moreover, it is set

in a recent past:

Sometimes, however, parties of young men and women of the Montanas and

the Petrocchis happen to meet when they are strolling on the wide street called

the Corso in the evenings. When that happens, other citizens take shelter at

once. If they fight with fists and stones, that is bad enough, but if they fight

with spells, it can be appalling.18

The situation described is supported and completed by three sentences which are all set

in a recent and not defined past. The first sentence is an example

An example of this is when the dashing Rinaldo Montana caused the sky to

rain cowpats [...]19

16 Ibidem, p.6817 Wynne Jones, Diana, The Chronicles of Chrestomanci: The Magicians of Caprona, New York,

HarperCollins, 2001, p.6.18 Ibidem19 Ibidem, p. 7

23

In the second sentence, Rinaldo explains why he had cast a spell like that, so this

sentence clarifies the previous one. Since Rinaldo refers to a specific past event, which

is not contextualized in time, also this sentence follows the previous narrative strategy

“A Petrocchi insulted me,” Rinaldo explained, with his most flashing smile.

“And I happened to have a new spell in my pocket.”20

However, the Petrocchis have a different opinion about the cowpats rain and, in the

following sentence, he analyses what has really happened.

The Petrocchis unkindly claimed that Rinaldo had misquoted his spell in the

heat of the battle. Everyone knew that all Rinaldo's spells were love charms.21

A past event must be connected also with something in the present, to establish a

coherent timeline. Clearly, here, the timeline goes backward to connect what is

occurring in the present, between Casa Montana and Casa Petrocchi, and what has

happened in the past.

This overlapping, between past and present, is important also to emphasize the themes

of rivalry and revenge, in the plot. Talking of revenge, Mendlesohn interprets it as a

travel in time because it has been handed down for generations, in the course of time.

Vendetta has been present in the tales about past events, which have been modified and

embellished, to feed resentment. Furthermore, Mendlesohn points out that the theme of

time travel through the vendetta is a vehicle of time travel also for the reader who can

shift from a distant past to the present. In other words,

the reader too has been transported: the internal rhythm that shuttles us

through different periods of the past allows Jones to deliver us apparently

effortlessly to her present.22

Jones makes the reading dynamic and anything but boring, altering the

chronological order of the story through digressions. For instance, the first chapter ends

20 Ibidem21 Ibidem22 Mendlesohn, Farah, Diana Wynne Jones: Children's Literature and the Fantastic Tradition,New York

and London, Routledge: Taylor and Francis Group, 2005, p. 70

24

in Casa Montana with Old Niccolo who asks Benvenuto, the Casa cat, to become

friends with Tonino because he is a very unhappy boy and needs a friend. However, the

first pages of the second chapter deceive the reader because the chronological

progression of the story is momentarily suspended. Indeed, chapter 2 starts with Tonino

who meets Benvenuto, near Piazza Nuova. Tonino is very upset about his lack of

magical skills and he entrusts his worries to Benvenuto. The reader learns that Tonino

and Benvenuto are actually friends, moreover he/she learns also that Tonino is the only

one who understands Benvenuto's language.

Only after they have come back home, the reader discovers that this chapter is none

other than a flashback, a chronological jump into an immediate past. The text does not

report again the dialogue between Old Niccolo and Benvenuto; on the contrary, there is

only an allusion to the moment in which the Cat finds out that Old Niccolo wants to see

him. At the end of this second chapter, the reader must pay attention to details because

there is another jump in the timeline.

Tonino continued to be slow at learning spells and not particularly quick at

school. Paolo was twice as quick at both. But as the years went by, both of

them accepted it. It did not worry them. What worried them far more was their

gradual discovery that things were not altogether well in the Casa Montana,

nor in Caprona either.23

Through these sentences, the reader's attention shifts from Tonino's worries, to Casa

Montana's worries about the destiny of Caprona.

In the third chapter, we learn that time has passed and the situation of Caprona has

worsened. In her analysis, Mendlesohn points out that the text often inverts the

narrative order and, to clarify and supports her statement, she uses as an example Aunt

Francesca's long speech followed by a report. Aunt Francesca's speech is expressed in

the Present Tense while the following account is expressed in Past Perfect:

“Everything is going wrong for us,” she said. “Money's short, tourists do not

come here, and we get weaker every year. Here are Florence, Pisa and Siena

all gathering round like vultures […] If this goes on we shan't be a State any

more. […] It is all the fault of those degenerate of Petrocchis, I tell You! [..]

23 Wynne Jones, Diana, The Chronicles of Chrestomanci: The Magicians of Caprona, New York,HarperCollins, 2001, p. 31

25

They just keep turning things out in the same old way, and going from bad to

worse. You can see they are, or that child would not have been able to turn her

father green!”.

[…] All the years Paolo and Tonino had been at school, they had grown used

to hearing that there had been this concession to Florence; that Pisa had

demanded that agreement over fishing rights. [...]24

Mendlesohn underlines also that

The new rhetorical rule, if there is one, seems to be that no elaboration is

written in the same tense or mode as that which it is elaborating. If one is

direct speech, the other is delivered in another manner, so that we are

continually keep off guard.25

It is interesting also that irony is exhibited in the speaking attitude of characters which

reflect their different attitude in solving problems. Often, old characters speak using the

immediate present form, whereas children contemplate also the past. These two

opposite attitudes reveal that old characters are taking lightly the crises and they do not

react concretely as, on the contrary, children do.

In chapter thirteen and fourteen, the rhetorical structure is complicated because

time becomes even more unstable: indeed, some scenes are not narrated in the order in

which they occur, but they are narrated in reverse. For instance, in the correct timeline,

Angelica casts a spell to let her family know that she is inside the ducal palace.

However, this scene is narrated only in chapter fourteen and thus in reverse. There is

flashback in which the reader learns about Angelica's spell, in chapter thirteen, during a

dialogue between Paolo and Renata:

Renata began to laugh. “Now that is Angelica!” she said. “I'd know her spells

anywhere.

[…] What is it? A call for help?” Panted Paolo.

“Must be,” gasped Renata. “Angelica's spells -always- mad kind of

reasonableness.”26

24 Ibidem, p. 34-3525 Mendlesohn, Farah, Diana Wynne Jones: Children's Literature and the Fantastic Tradition,New York

and London, Routledge: Taylor and Francis Group, 2005, p. 7026 Wynne Jones, Diana, The Chronicles of Chrestomanci: The Magicians of Caprona, New York,

HarperCollins, 2001, p. 227-228

26

The scenes are structured as one parallel to the other, to make the reading more fluid;

hence, if the text had been structured with these two following scenes, the necessity to

add an extra scene, as a connection, might have arisen. Thus, through this device, the

scene about when Paolo and Renata go to the top of the cathedral to see Angelica's

spell, is not necessary and thus it is not present.

According to Mendleshon, these two scenes are parallel to each other and not

consecutive, thus they tell two different events which are happening in two different

places but at the same moment. In other words, it seems that the reader's view is divided

in two parts, thus he can observe in the same moment, two different scenes while they

are happening. Moreover, they have the same duration and they end at the same time,

for this reason they reach the same point in the characters' time lines. This kind of

narration characterises these two scenes in a different way: Paolo and Renata's scene is

characterised by urgency while Angelica and Tonino's scene is more peaceful.

Unlike The Magicians of Caprona, in which the relation between time and space

is expressed by a rhetorical strategy, in Conrad's Fate the relation between time and

space is expressed by the plot itself. The entire story is based on Christopher Chant's

search for Millie, which is progressively hindered by magical changes of the time-space

continuum. Here, the relation between time and space focuses principally on changing

the space without altering completely time, thus there are not flashbacks or changes in

the chronological order. However, even though time is not completely altered, it suffers

some modifications because often these changes open new parallel worlds. This

peculiarity, about spacial changes, appears in the first pages of the book, when the co-

protagonist Conrad has not left his home yet to reach Stallery Mansion. Here, Conrad is

looking for a book when his uncle Alfred rushes into his bookshop ordering him to go

outside and see if the landscape is still the same

I went to the shop door, but as far as I could see, nothing.. Oh! The postbox

down the road was now bright blue.

“You see!” said my uncle when I told him. “You see what they're like! All

sorts of details will be different now-valuable details-but what do they care?

All they think of is money!”.27

27 Wynne Jones, Diana, The Chronicles of Chrestomanci: Conrad's Fate, New York, HarperCollins,2008, p.13

27

Uncle Alfred answers Conrad's questions by accusing people who live in Stallery,

which is the Castle in which the Royal family lives, and explains that they change

things through the use of a powerful magic. Conrad is still very puzzled and, when he

reaches his room, his sister Anthea tries to make things more clear.

I still did not understand why anyone should want to.

“It's because if you change to a new set of things that might be going to

happen,” Anthea explained, looking up from her books, “you change

everything just a little. This time,” she added, ruefully turning the pages of her

notes, “they seem to have done a big jump and made a big difference. I have

got notes here in two books that do not seem to exist anymore. […]”28

It is really interesting that changes do not affect only Stallery Mansion, that is, the place

in which these changes come from, but they also affect all the kingdom. Gradually, the

reader discovers new details and new features about these changes which, little by little,

become more complex and intricate. The text focuses gradually on one particular

feature: the perception of these shifts among people. The first example of this

progressive perception, appears when Christopher and Conrad are attending a cooking

class with Mr. Maxim, the chief cook. In this episode, Christopher and Conrad perceive

clearly that things have changed and something is different, while their teacher does not

notice anything.

“There has been a change, Mr. Maxim,” I explained. “We were cooking

omelets a moment ago. Someone has puled the possibilities, I think.”

[…] Mr. Maxim looked at use gloomily. “My memory is that I decided

yesterday to teach you bacon an eggs,” he said. “ But I take your word for it.

Staff are always telling me things have changed. I never notice”29

Among all the people, the staff of Stallery is the one who perceives mainly that things

have changed because of the alterations in housekeeping. For instance, all the uniforms

suddenly change their colours, objects change their position and even food transforms

while people is eating. However, it is ironic that characters are not only upset by the

recurring changes in the time-space continuum: they are also confused by the presence

28 Ibidem, p.1429 Ibidem, p. 130

28

of a female ghost. Since a woman has been murdered in the library, her soul is

entrapped in Stallery. Thus, sometimes the staff does not know if some changes are due

to an unknown magical force or to the ghost.

It is interesting that with the increase of frequent changes, also the perception of

these changes increase and not only among butlers and housemaids. Even Lady Mary,

who is Count Robert's bride-to-be, only after few hours from her arrival to Stallery,

perceives that something continues to change

“Is Count Robert a magic user?” Lady Mary said.

“I have no idea-I do not think so,” I said. “Please!”

“But someone here is,” she said. “Someone is using magic to change things all

the time. Why”

“To make money,” I found myself saying.

“Who?” Lady Mary asked.

“ […] I cannot tell you because I do not know!”30

These changes arouse Christopher and Conrad's curiosity, so they begin to use their free

time to look for Millie but also to look for what is causing the changes. After many

unsuccessful researches, they finally reach the place in which the shifts begin: this place

is none other than Mr. Amos's wine cellar. They enter the place in secret because only

the great butler Mr. Amos can serve wine to the royal family, and it is this restriction

that arouses suspicion in Christopher and Conrad. Once inside, they discover that there

is an extra room in which there is a console with a lot of screens. Every screen shows

one city belonging to the kingdom. Christopher highlights that some controls are more

used than others, thus he deduces that they are more important than others. It is

interesting that here, there is a mixture of science-fiction elements and fantasy elements

because there are technological tools, as screens and console, combined with magic.

Christopher simply grinned and pressed the used square button firmly down.

We felt the shift like an earthquake down there. Our feet seemed to jerk

sideways under us. All the screens blinked and began to flicker away madly in

new configurations. Above the console, the strange patterns wove and writhed

into quite different shapes and colours.31

30 Ibidem, p. 26031 Ibidem, p. 208

29

Christopher and Conrad are interrupted by a voice

“Amos,” it said. “Do you pay attention. I do not think we can afford to make

changes at the moment. We may have trouble this end. I told you about the

ratty little fellow we caught sneaking around the office. [...]”32

Clearly, this character does not see who has activated the console and takes for granted

that nobody knows this secret. However, this quotation is important for two reasons:

first of all, because it reveals that Mr. Amos does not act alone and secondly, because it

underlines that people have started to become very suspicious.

As has been argued previously, Conrad's Fate focuses particularly on space,

although this does not mean that time has been ignored. In other words, here time has

been manipulated as a consequence of space modifications. Indeed, each change,

provoked by Mr. Amos, creates, at the same time, undeniable alterations in all the

kingdom and it creates also new parallel dimensions. In other words, each change opens

a rift in the time-space continuum, originating a new dimension. The new dimension,

even though it is the result of Mr. Amos's changes, is not immune to alterations; thus

when the butler activates the console, the dimension changes. People can enter

voluntarily or accidentally into the new dimension and it is not always easy to exit; for

instance, Millie is entrapped in a parallel dimension and she is unable to exit.

Christopher is looking for her and perceives her presence without understanding where

she is

“ I can feel her,” he said. “She is here, I know she is! I felt her when we were

coming here across the park, and I keep feeling her inside this house. When I

get to that queer part beyond that line of paint, it almost feels as if I am

treading on her! But she is not there! I do not understand it, and it is driving

me mad!”33

Finding a way to go back to the beginning reality, is difficult because the people who

are entrapped in the parallel dimension, are hindered by changes. This happens because,

even though the parallel dimension is set always in places similar to Stallery, the

32 Ibidem, p. 20833 Ibidem, p. 123

30

alterations modify reference points. Often, these places are ruined castles with a lot of

stairs which confuse characters even more. In other words, when a character begins to

settle and begins to plan an itinerary, then a change happens modifying all the

landscape. At this point, the character must begin the process again.

Even Christopher and Conrad get lost in a parallel dimension and it is not a pleasant

experience. Firstly, they find themselves in a wooden tower, then a shift happens and

they find themselves in a dark stone building. It is really interesting that they do not

perceive a shift while it is happening; on the contrary, they become aware of the shift

only after it is ended, when the landscape has changed. Moreover, although they are in a

parallel dimension, they feel the presence of Millie but they do not meet her

“What about Millie? Is she along there?

Christopher shook his head impatiently. “No. Here. Here is the only place she

feels anywhere near at the moment. It looks like as if changes are somehow

connected to the way she is not here, but that is all I know. […] And I realized

that Millie must be stuck in one of the other probabilities beyond this one.

[...]34

Through this passage, the reader can learn that more realities can coexist. Precisely,

different versions of one single reality can coexist without interference: indeed,

Christopher and Conrad are entrapped in the same reality as Millie but each dimension

has a different time, thus they cannot meet.

It is interesting to underline also that the passage of time is identical in all the

dimensions. In other words, even though the parallel dimensions are set in a different

time-space continuum, the hours flow exactly as they flow in the beginnings of things;

thus if in the beginnings of things it is noon, it is noon also in the parallel dimension.

Christopher looked at his watch. It was nearly five-thirty. We were going to

be late back on duty if another shift did not happen soon.35

Speaking of time flow, the reader can observe that there are not allusions to the

duration of changes. Indeed, even though these shifts seem to last only for a few

seconds, this subject is not mentioned in the text, and lets the reader's imagination flow.

34 Ibidem, p. 148-15435 Ibidem, p. 155

31

For this reason, the reader may imagine that a shift lasts more than another, depending

on its complexity.

Coming back from the parallel dimension to the starting reality, this is

permeated with mystery for two reasons: first of all, it is because the reasons for

returning are not clear. Probably, the return is linked and caused by the changes, but

there is no clear explanation. Characters, simply, find themselves somewhere in

Stallery, often in a different place from which they were when a shift happened.

Moreover, they realise that they are back in their contemporary version of Stallery,

because they hear the noise of housemaids and butlers who are working

“I believe we are back.” […] People were hurrying and calling things and

coming in and out of doors in the distance. We could tell that everyone was

getting smartened up for supper and Dinner after that.36

Indeed, the parallel dimension is characterized by lack of people, and consecutively the

lack of noises made by their activities. In these dimensions, characters can only hear the

howling wind or the squeaking of the floor or the creaking of a wooden door. These

dimensions seems to be suspended in time and abandoned.

Secondly, coming back seems to be associated to a sensation of infiniteness. That is to

say, each change in a parallel dimension induces the character to begin, again, the

research of a way to comeback; this can happen endlessly, because no one knows when

another change will take place and neither who or what determines their return back.

The reader identifies with the protagonists, so readers and characters wonder about the

same questions: who decides when I will come back? Will I come back soon?

Unfortunately, the text does not provide any answers to these questions.

2.3.1 Introducing Space

As we have seen in the previous chapters, time and space are two single entities

which set up another complex entity: the time-space continuum. Time and space are

connected: thus speaking of time without mentioning space, and vice versa, is

impossible. The Encyclopaedia Britannica defines space as

36 Ibidem, p. 160

32

a boundless, three-dimensional extent in which objects and events occur and

have relative position and direction.37

Even though the Encyclopaedia Britannica gives a very appropriate definition,

describing space only in this way would be reductive. Indeed, philosophers,

mathematicians, physics and even psychologists have discussed this topic. The first

debate about space, in a mathematical and philosophical context, dates back to Plato's

Timaeus (360 BC) and to Aristotle's Physics: Book IV (IV century BC). Later, even

Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz treated this theme and they have formulated two

opposite theories. Isaac Newton deals with the concept of space in his masterpiece

Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (1687). Here, Newton formulates the

basis of classical mechanics and the law of universal gravitation. In this context, he

speaks about space as something absolute which exists irrespective of material bodies.

He states also that space is not characterized by dynamic features; thus it has

independent properties which do not change when there is an interaction with the

matter. On the contrary, Leibniz affirms that space is not an independent entity but

rather, the combination of spatial relationships between objects. In other words,

“[...]I hold space to be something merely relative, as time is, taking space to

be an order of coexistences, as time is an order of successions. For space

indicates.. an order of things existing at the same time, considered just as

existing together, without bringing in any details about what they are like.

When we see a number of things together, one becomes aware of this order

among them.”38

However, in the 19th and 20th centuries, space became to be considered curved rather

than flat. This is a non-Euclidean conception of geometries which is at the basis of

Enisten's theory of general relativity.

Space is not only a cornerstone of philosophical and scientific theories. On the

contrary, it fulfils a fundamental role also in literature and literary criticism.

Spatial form is a crucial aspect of the experience and interpretation of

37 Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Space”, [http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/557313/space,accessed august 2014]

38 Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm, “Third Paper: An Answer to Dr. Clarke's Second Replay”,[http://www.newtonproject.sussex.ac.uk/view/texts/normalized/THEM00230, accessed august 2014]

33

literature in all ages and culture.39

Space becomes a recurring theme in Twentieth-Century literary criticism and it acquires

the label of “literary space”. There are many theories and many definitions about

literary space, although, often these theories and definitions contradict each other. Only

in 1937, the Russian scholar Mikhail Bakhtin marked a turning point into the critical

study of literary space. He was deeply inspired by Einstein's relativity theory and in his

essay, Forms of Time and of the Chronotope in the Novel (1937-38), he claims that texts

and historical reality are strictly connected. He introduces the concept of“chronotope”

which is

the intrinsic connectedness of temporal and spatial relationship.40

In the Concluding Remarks, the final chapter, Bakhtin points out that the reader can

enjoy the events narrated in the novel, thanks to the mediations of chronotope. In other

words, time condenses itself in certain spaces, creating the literary image. He underlines

also that literary space is still less investigated that time. Gradually, Bakhtin's wish has

been fulfilled and nowadays, space is an important subject of study. Bakhtin is not the

only one who thinks that space has been largely ignored, in favour of studies about time

and history. Michel Foucault, in his essay Questions on Geography (1980) states that

Space was treated as the dead, the fixed, the undialectical, the immobile.

Time, on the contrary was richness, fecundity, life, dialectic.41

The time versus space debate is mostly based on modernist and postmodernist views of

time and space. According to modernism, the speed of changes and the development of

modern industrial society, affect people's life. Modernism aims to represent the world

and the place that people occupy in it. The modernist concept of time and space is

expressed by the design of modern cities in which motor vehicles and airplanes

circulate. In this context, time is oriented toward the progress. Moreover, in a society

39 Mitchell, W. J. T., “Spatial Form in Literature: Toward a General Theory”, Critical Inquiry, VI, 3(spring 1980): 539-567. p.541

40 Bemong, N., Borghart, P., De Dobbeleer, M., Demoen, K., De Temmerman, K., Keunen,B.,Bakthin's Theory of the Literary Chronotope: Reflections, Applications, Perspectives, Gent,Academia Press, 2010 p.3

41 Foucault, Michel, “Question on Geography”, in C. Gordon (ed.) Power/Knowledge: SelectedInterviews and Other Writings 1972-1977, Brighton, Harvester Press, 1980, p.70

34

overawed by capitalism which dictates fast rhythms, time acquires more importance

than space.

In modernist culture, it seems that social space was sidelined by more

pressing problems of time, and place was regarded as an historical and

possibly regressive construct, and therefore a hinderance to progress.42

Postmodernism has changed the representation of the past but it has also changed the

perception of time and space. Space and time are more fluid, in particular, space is

perceived as something homogeneous and it is the product of globalization. Space has

become a social category; moreover, even though cities appear homogeneous, often

they are internally fragmented by boundaries of race, class, ethnicity and gender. In

other words, cities are both homogeneous and heterogeneous because even though they

are architecturally consistent, the relationships between people and space are

fragmentary. Megalopolis are crowded by people who are looking for a job, these

people share a certain space but they do not develop a common identity. While

modernism regards space as something static, which contains the occurrence of events,

postmodernism regards space as something combined with time which affects and is

affected by events. Summing up,

in comparing modern and postmodern approaches to space and time, it seems

as though modernist culture was more concerned with the individual

experience of “private” time, and escape from “public” time. In postmodern

culture the emphasis is more on the spatial component of spatio-temporal

relations. In the postmodern novel, this change of emphasis entails a different

organisation of the novel's chronotope, and this has considerable impact of

worlds as representations of multiple time-space.43

In 1980, he contemporary scholar Ruth Ronen wrote an essay, entitled Space in fiction

in which she described space as

The domain of settings and surroundings of events, characters and objects in

literary narrative, along with other domain (story, character, time and

42 Smethurst, Paul, The Postmodern Chronotope: Reading Space and Time in Contemporary Fiction,Amsterdam, Editions Rodopi B.V, 2000, p. 37.

43 Ibidem, p. 39

35

ideology), constitutes a fictional universe.44

She focuses on the relationship between various categories of space-constructs and their

manifestations; for this purpose, she begins her essay with the assumption that space is a

semantic construct. In other words, she assumes that the literary text employs linguistic

structures which make space. She adds also that the parts which compose the fictional

space, are not identifiable with specific textual expression. Then, Ronen contrasts the

frame with the setting:

Frames are fictional places and locations which provide a topological

determination to events and states in the story. […] A setting is distinguished

from frames in general in being formed by a set of fictional places which are

the topological focus of the story. A setting is zero point where the actual

story-events and story-states are localized.45

In the last part of her essay, she states that the relations of similarity or opposition

between the frames, establish a principle of equivalence which settles fictional spaces.

Moreover, fictional spatial constructs are interrelated, that is to say, each spatial

construct is always characterised by the connection with another spatial construct.

In the same year, 1980, W. J. T. Mitchell also wrote an essay which focuses on the

issue of spatial form in literature. This essay is entitled “Spatial Form in Literature:

Toward a General Theory”. He begins by observing that it is impossible to speak of

time without speaking of space, because the spatial form is the perceptual basis for the

notion of time. According to him

Space is the body of time, the form or image that gives us an intuition of

something that is not directly perceivable but which permeate all that we

apprehend. Time is the soul of space, the invisible entity which animates the

field of our experience.46

To support his thesis, he takes as example the temporal language which is contaminated

with spatial imaginary. In other words,

44 Ronen, Ruth, “Space in fiction” Poetics today, VII, 3 (1986): p. 421-43845 Ibidem, p. 42346 Mitchell, W. J. T., “Spatial Form in Literature: Toward a General Theory”, Critical Inquiry, VI, 3

(spring 1980): : 539-567. p: 545.

36

in literature, our sense of continuity, sequence and linear progression is not

non-spatial because it is temporal.47

In the 19th century, space becomes also psychologists' subject of study: exactly,

they begin to analyse how people perceive space. Thanks to these studies, psychologists

have identified a lot of phobias: for instance, they have identified the fear of open space,

commonly known as agoraphobia, or the fear of enclosed space, commonly known as

claustrophobia. Sigmund Freud also deals with space, in his book A General

Introduction to Psychoanalysis (1920), in which he interprets the dreams. He refers to

space as landscape and he states that there is a connection between space and sexual

symbols. According to him, mountains and cliffs represent the male organs whereas the

females genitals are symbolized by gardens. More precisely, fruit represents the breasts.

Female virginity is represented too by natural elements, such as blossoms and flowers.

It is really interesting that Freud's theory can be employed also in literature and,

specifically, in the analysis of The Chronicles of Chrestomanci. For instance, Andy

Sawyer's essay, Diana Wynne Jones's Other Garden (2005), analyses the hidden

meaning of the garden. He states that in Charmed Life (1977) the “Other Garden”, with

his multi-seasonal vegetation, stands for imaginative fertility. However, this garden is

also a means of active escape, a way out from reality: indeed both Cat in Charmed life

and Christopher Chant in The Lives of Christopher Chant (1988) have to accept their

role of nine-lived enchanters, and they have to accept that they have duties apart from

their will.

2.3.2 Time Versus Space: Geography Rewriting in The Chronicles ofChrestomanci

Even though the French scholar Paul Vidal de la Blache (1845-1918) is

considered the “father” of geography, its origin is very ancient. The history and the

development of this discipline are connected with the history of human society;

however, geography has been considered a real science only in recent times. When we

think about geography, the first concept that occurs to us is space. Indeed the spatial

analysis defines the nature of geography and it is fundamental in geographical research. 47 Ibidem, p.542

37

Over the years, the concept of geographical space has changed a lot. For this reason, the

idea that geographical space originates from the balance between the concept of

absolute space and the concept of relative space, may be considered slightly old

fashioned. According to this viewpoint, geographical space is a relational concept.

Absolute space is an empty space which represents the lack of objects and it is

represented by a topographical coordinate system, whereas the relative space is

considered as an active space which affects the things that it contains. Thus, relative

space seems like an environment.

Nowadays, the academic debate about geographical space focuses on the differences

between space and place which are considered two fundamental geographic concepts.

These two terms are more complex than they appear at a glance. The term space

indicates the dimension in which phenomena are spread and it is determined by

Euclidean distance. According to some scholars, space is both the vehicle and the result

of social relationships. For instance, the social difference between ethnical groups is

represented also by the spatial distance among them; for this reason space is involved in

social exclusion. The term “place”, actually, is more specific. It can be considered in

various ways: first of all it can be considered as a location, thus it can be identified by a

network of coordinates which shows a determined position. Secondly, it can be

considered as a locale which is established by a specific setting of social relationships.

Thirdly, the term place is arranged with the concept of locality. Also this association

suggests the idea of a particular area or region in which there are social and economic

processes. Often, these processes are specific to that particular area or, sometimes, they

are influenced by the habits which are predominant in the region. The Chinese

geographer Yi – Fu Tuan emphasises the cultural and humanistic approaches of

geography and deals with the concept of “sense of place”. He begins his analysis by

observing that even though only human beings have a sense of place, it is possible to

say that even place has spirit or personality. People's sense of place is displayed when

people employ their moral and aesthetic judgement to locations. Tuan states also that in

this context, the word sense can have a visual or aesthetic meaning but it can signify

also the verb “to know”. For this reason, he argues that it is possible to have a sense of

place in the profound meaning of the word, thus it is possible to know a place

subconsciously, without the aid of the eyes. He concludes his analysis by saying that

yet it is possible to be fully aware of our attachment to place only when we

38

have left it and we can see it as a whole from distance.48

After World War II, the geography of the world has unavoidably changed and

these spatial changes have deeply affected culture, politics and daily life. That mood has

had serious repercussions also on children's literature and the themes of belonging and

identity have become urgent and preponderant. Starting from 1945, many fantasy

authors have written about an England which brings back the Empire and the power of

Britain. This “unreal” view of the British nation and its people, is full of nostalgia and

sentimentalism. According to Leonard Lutwack, this escape into nostalgia is a reaction

to a modern discomfort called “placelessness” which is

the disappearance of familiar places and the proliferation of a more limited set

of uniform places.49

Also Diana Wynne Jones wondered about the theme of nostalgia. Thus, she completely

reversed the principles of an ideal image of Great Britain, to demonstrate that this

nostalgic view is not useful to show the reality of the nation. Moreover, Jones's texts

explore the complex concept of Englishness, focusing on the consequences of English

life both for the insider and the outsider. In short, Englishness is a way of being based

on a set of moral values, beliefs and attitudes which are belonging only to England and

to the people who are identified as English.

The scholar Karen Sands-O'Connor observes that contemporary England has become a

dangerous place for children and it does not hold anymore a high moral ground.

The two texts that, more than others, criticize England and the modern world, are

Charmed Life (1977) and The Lives of Christopher Chant (1988). In these two texts, our

world is just one of the twelve different series of worlds and is not oriented on magic

whereas it is oriented to science. In the The Lives of Christopher Chant, Christopher

travels accidentally to our world and, even though he spends only few minutes here, he

is absolutely horrified by technology and industrial development. According to

Christopher, this is a frightening world unsuitable for children. On the contrary, in

Charmed Life, a character belonging to our world travels to Chrestomanci's world

48 Tuan, Yi-Fu, “Space and Place: Humanistic Perspective”, in S. Gale and G. Olsson (eds) Philosophyin Geography, Dordrecht, Holland, D. Reidel Publishing Company, 1979, pp. 387 - 422.

49 Lutwack, Leonard, The Role of Place in Literature, Syracuse, New York, Syracuse University Press,1984, p.183.

39

because of an identity exchange. At the beginning of the travel, Janet Chant does not

appreciate Chrestomanci's world, whereas at the end of the story she has changed her

mind. This change of attitude is due to the discovery that her real parents, who belong to

our world, have not noticed that she has been replaced with another girl. Clearly, these

texts do not offer a completely idealized view of the past, but they suggest that the past

may be considered a place safer and more welcoming for children.

Jones's books do not only deal with the humanistic concept of geography in

relation to nostalgia but they also deal with the geographical concept of place as a

location, as a locale and as a locality. These contemporary geographic concepts are the

focus of Conrad's Fate (2005) which is one of Jones's most recent books. Obviously,

this book demonstrates that Jones's books are updated under every aspect. In other

words, starting from the first book, the reader can recognise an update of themes and

scientific concepts. It is also interesting that Conrad's Fate changes radically the

geography of the world. This revolution is a brilliant expedient because there is not only

an addition of cities but there is also a morphological change of mountains and borders.

Christopher astounded me by asking, “By the way, what or where is this

Ludwich that the Countess is so peeved with the Count for vanishing to?”

I stared at him. How could he not know? “It's the capital city, of course!

Down in the Sussex Plains, beside the Little Rhine. Everyone knows that!”50

It is striking and brilliant that the feeling of disorientation is also perceived by one of

the protagonists of the book. This choice has a double strong effect on the reader: in

addition to be puzzled by a geographical change, he/she is confused also by

Christopher's reaction and by his utmost disorientation. The explanation of

Christopher's confusion is quite simple: he feels so puzzled because he comes from

another world with a different geography. Christopher is really astonished to learn that

Stallchester is just above the English Alps, so he asks Conrad

“what other Alps are there, then-as a matter of interest?”

“French, Italian, Austrian,” I said. “Those Alps sort of run together. The

English Alps are divided by Frisia.” Christopher looked quite bewildered. He

did not seem to know any geography at all. “Frisia is the country on the

50 Jones, Diana Wynne, The Chronicles of Chrestomanci: Conrad's Fate, New York, HarperCollins,2008, p.94.

40

English border,” I explained. “The whole of Europe is quite flat between

Ludwich and Mosskva, and the Alps make a sort of half-moon round the

south of that. The English Alps are to the north of the plains.”51

Clearly this “condition” is not one-way, thus it is funny when some pages later also

Conrad needs some explanations:

“Millie only lives with us n the holidays because the people she came from

insisted on her going to boarding school. Her latest school is in Switzerland-”

“Where is that?” I asked.

“You do not have it in Seven,” Christopher said. “It is in the Alps, squashed

in among France, Germany and Italy-”

“I do not know of a Germany either,” I said.

“ The Teutonic States, then?” Christopher guessed.

“Oh, you mean the Slavo- Teutonic States!” I said.52

This is a defamiliarization technique which entails the introduction of an unfamiliar

world through the eyes of a character. This unfamiliar perspective prompts the reader's

cognitive activity because he/she has to make an effort to identify the familiar world.

51 Ibidem, p.95.52 Ibidem, p.119.

41

3 Splitting Worlds

3.1 Introducing Parallel Universes

As we have seen before, the discovery of relativity and quantum physics has led

on to a new conception of physics. Between 1950s and 1960s, physicists wanted to

unify their knowledge and explain rationally the new findings; thus they began to

wonder about the existence of other worlds which exist side-by-side to our world, as

parallel ghosts. The new physics conceives parallel universes as

regions of space and time containing matter, galaxies, stars, planets and living

beings. In other words, a parallel universe is similar and possibly even a

duplicate of our own universe. 53

Some physicists think that parallel universes are the result of a space-time distortion,

due to gravity. In other words, they think that parallel worlds are duplications of what

already exists. Moreover, the parallel beings exist simultaneously to us, even if we do

not perceive them. This idea of duplication of us “out there” has been adopted by

science-fiction and it has begun a key-element of this genre.

In 1953 Albert Einstein and his associate at Princeton University, Nathan Rosen, lay the

foundations for the parallel universe theory by stating that black holes are “tubes” which

connect a universe to another possible universe. Only few years later, in 1957, the

theory of parallel universes was conceived by Hugh Everett III, a graduate student at

Princeton University. He argued that if two alternatives can interfere with each other

then, in some way, they both exist simultaneously. In other words, every time that

anything gets in contact with anything else, the universe splits and creates a new

universe. Each world is equally real but they cannot communicate with one another. The

starting universe and the complementary universe are connected, thus the existence of a

single universe depends on the existence of its parallel universe. 53

Wolf, Fred Alan, Parallel Universes: The Search for Other Worlds, New York, Simon and Schuster,1988, p. 20-21.

42

Stephen Hawking is a cosmological physicist from Cambridge University, who has tried

to synthesize the general relativity theory and quantum physics. He deals with the

concept of parallel universes and he states that irrespective of the number of the

universes, the majority of them is similar to our world. In other words, he points out that

the structure of parallel worlds and also the forms of life who inhabit these universes,

are analogous to the world in which we live. In Jones's novels, multiple worlds are the

result of a mixture of imagination and scientific modern theories: she summarizes

Hawking's theory by observing that the split between two worlds is possible only if they

have different “fate-lines”. On the other hand, the split worlds follow natural laws

which are similar to those belonging to our world, with the exception of the presence

and the use of magic. Moreover, these parallel worlds are similar to our worlds because

of the presence of humans.

David Deutsch, professor at Oxford University, also works on the concept of parallel

worlds:

Deutsch does not try to hide behind words or philosophical cop-outs but

acknowledges that yes, parallel versions of our world are just as real as our

own, including copies in which he himself exists but is doing different things

at this moment.54

This can happen because when the ghost photon meets our photon, the two realities

interfere with each other.

Parallel universes is an extremely fascinating theme not only for physicists, but

also for fantasy novelists. This theme has acquired great importance, as it has become a

key-element and an emblem of fantasy fiction. Unlike physicists, fantasy authors do not

focus on the creation of these other worlds; they do not try to explain rationally their

existence, but they accept them. In fantasy fiction, parallel universes are so integrated in

the story, that their presence seems plausible. Even if this theme is ancient and common

also in folklore and oral tradition, in fantasy fiction, the distinction between one world

and the other worlds was formalized only in the 1940s.

Generally, the parallel worlds are connected to our world and accessed by the

use of a magical gate or a magical passageway which allows the explorations of the

54 Bruce, Colin, Schrödinger's rabbits: the many worlds of quantum, Washington, Joseph Henry Press,2005, p. 176.

43

complex secondary space. Conventionally, this passageway or the door between other

worlds is called “portal”.

In a larger sense that has consistently escaped critical attention, a portal

signifies a nexus point and instance of magical agency, the place where one

world not only physically borders but also engages another.55

However, portals are not simple concrete doorways but they include in itself

all those living things, places, and magical objects that act as agents for a

hero(ine) to travel between worlds and/or to access higher planes of

consciousness.56

Portals make the development of the concept of the “in-between” both physically and

psychologically possible: indeed, portals denote the passage from a world to another,

from our time to another time, from reality to imagination. Portal is a magical agent

with a double function, as it offers the reader both a way out from routine and real

world, and a way into another world full of magic.

The portal connotes a myriad of power associations and imbalances,

centralizing and making transparent the ways in which literary fantasy attacks

real-world problems.57

It is really interesting that portals have also a metaphorical function: indeed, they mark

the transition between two fundamental steps in human life. These steps are childhood

and adulthood. Portal is the tool which makes this transition possible, because only

through the exploration of new worlds, the protagonist, who commonly is a child, can

explore, improve him/herself and grow up.

Over the years, portals and parallel worlds, due to their abundance of cultural meanings,

have become irreplaceable elements in fantasy fiction; moreover, the existence of other

worlds has become a criterion of categorisation. That is to say, fantasy fiction can be

classified:

55 Campbell, Lori M., Portals of Power: Magical Agency and Transformation in Literary Fantasy,Jefferson, North Carolina and London, McFarland and Company, Inc., Publishers, 2010, p. 6.

56 Ibidem, p.657 Ibidem, p.6

44

[…] between fantasy set in “this” world, where there is a tension between the

“normal” and the fantastic elements, and “other” worlds in which the fantastic

is the norm. In “this” world, magic may just happen to exist […]; there may

be intrusions of magic into this world from a different plane […] or a different

world […]; or the transportation of characters into another, parallel world.58

It is really interesting to note that seldom if ever, the location of places is described in

detail. In other words, places are rarely mapped, and this stresses, in this way, the

breach between the real world and the unreal one. For instance, in some novels, the

geography is vague also because the place is not a place in itself, but it is only a space

where things happen.

Certainly, the creation of other worlds has suffered, over the years, many changes which

are linked with the transformations suffered by society. Indeed, eighteenth century

fiction gave priority to the realism of the novel, as reflection of that period commonly

known as the age of reason and pragmatism; whereas the nineteenth century was

dominated by fantasy novel used as a sublimation, or a political tool. The books which

mainly represent nineteenth century fantasy novel, are Lewis Carroll's “Alice” books.

The first Alice's book is Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, commonly known only as

Alice in Wonderland, which was published in 1865; while the second one is Through

the Looking-Glass which was published in 1871.

This is fantasy locked on to the real world; each book is a satire-allegory on

politics, a commentary on Victorian mores, an emphatic view of the (female)

child's position in Victorian society, and a sublimation of Carroll's own

desires.59

Even though Alice in Wonderland is addressed to children, it is an adult fantasy novel.

This book speaks about a young girl, Alice, who lives incredible adventures during a

dream. During her dream, she enters in many other strange worlds in which

everything is uneven, and the strangest things keep appearing. In Alice we

move from a talking White Rabbit, down a well, through a pool of tears, and

58 Hunt, Peter and Lenz, Millicent, Alternative Worlds in Fantasy Fiction, London and New York,Continuum, 2001, p. 11.

59 Ibidem, p. 24.

45

into a garden where we encounter a Mad Hatter's tea party, a game of croquet

played with living things, and a trial of the Knave of Hearts.60

Moreover, it is really interesting that

The alternative worlds that Alice enters are grotesque parodies of Alice's

“normal” world, existing, perhaps, only in her mind.61

However, in the twentieth century, fantasy novel begins to focus mainly on alternative

worlds. The first important novel that marks this trend is The Wizard of Oz, which is

perhaps the most famous American fantasy book. The Wizard of Oz was written by

Frank Baum, it was published in 1900 and it was the first book of Oz series. All the

sequels have in the title the word Oz, which is the name of an imaginary land; for this

reason it can be said that this series is deeply linked with the imaginary world. The

novel is about Dorothy Gale, a young girl who lives in a farm in Kansas with her aunt,

her uncle and her dog Toto. One day, a cyclone strikes violently on her farm and she is

swept away. She turns up at Land of Oz where she meets a Scarecrow which desires to

have a brain, a Cowardly Lion which wants to achieve courage, and a Tin Woodman

which wishes a heart. Moreover, Dorothy gets in touch also with some strange creatures

as, for instance, winged monkeys. In spite of the appearances, The Wizard of Oz is a

very complex novel which represents an allegory of United States of America. It is

really interesting that even though Baum has created a new world, Oz is a reflection of

American culture. In other words, Baum designs a world which is an utopian view of

America:

there is no country so beautiful as the land of Oz. There are no people so

happy and content and prosperous as the Oz people. [...]62

Undoubtedly, J. R. R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis are considered the “fathers of

parallel worlds.” In other worlds, they are two important authors who have given to the

twentieth century the best of fantasy fiction, and a concrete contribution to the creation

60 Manlove, Colin, From Alice to Harry Potter: Children's Fantasy in England, Christchurch,Cyberedition Corporation, 2003, p. 22-23.

61 Hunt, Peter and Lenz, Millicent, Alternative Worlds in Fantasy Fiction, London and New York,Continuum, 2001, p. 25.

62 Baum, Frank, L. The Magic of Oz , New York, Ballantine Books, 1993 p. 35.

46

of parallel worlds. Even though J. R. R. Tolkien is considered a cornerstone in the

creation of parallel universes, it is fundamental to specify that he created just one

fantastic world. For this reason, when critics refer to Tolkien's world, they do not speak

about a cosmos made by several worlds, which are achievable through a travel in time.

They speak about a “Secondary world” which is none other than an alternative and

totally fantastic world, endowed with its geography and its rules. This term was coined

exactly by J. R. R. Tolkien, during a lecture presented at St. Andrews University and it

defines simply an alternative reality which has nothing to do with our reality and in

which the impossible is possible. Tolkien's world rejects modernity and it appears as a

medieval world, lacking technology. He sets his masterpieces The Hobbit (1937) and

The Lord of The Rings (1954-55) in the Middle-Earth world which is

a complex creation, carefully worked out many years, and based on language

as much as geography.63

Many scholar agree that Middle-Earth is a fictional world which re-creates and

represents both England and its symbols. Tom Shippey, in his book, The Road to

Middle-Earth (2003), observes that

historically the Shire is like/unlike England, the hobbits like/unlike English

people. Hobbits live in the Shire as the English live in England, but like the

English they come form somewhere else [...]64

Shippey stresses also the importance of language in the creation of this secondary

world: indeed, he observes that a lot of the places which shape Middle-Earth, are named

with real names. Peter Hunt also underlines the truthfulness of names, and he observes

that the Shire represents home concretised as rural England. However, Tolkien's

Middle-Earth is a coherent world in which everything has its own reason for being.

Colin Manlove observes that, since Tolkien's world is based on nature, it is not

surprising that trees have a key role and they symbolize the time. Time is the real

cornerstone and

63 Hunt, Peter and Lenz, Millicent, Alternative Worlds in Fantasy Fiction, London and New York,Continuum, 2001, p. 33.

64 Shippey, Tom, The Road to Middle-Earth (Revised and Expanded), Boston and New York, HoughtonMifflin, 2003, p. 102.

47

is constantly being rooted in the past. Every action is keyed to a precise time

of day, year or season, and to the history that preceded it. Every character has

a genealogy and a race history going far back into the past.65

It is really interesting that even though Tolkien and Lewis are considered, to the same

degree, the “fathers of parallel worlds,” they have created these worlds with two

different approaches. Indeed, while Tolkien has built a coherent world, Lewis has, at

least initially, created a disjointed world by mixing talking animals from fairytales and

magical creatures from legends and religious allegorical figures. Lewis's enchanted

world, called Narnia, is the place where the adventures of the Pevensie family happen

and, last but not least, is the core of The Chronicles of Narnia (1950-56). In other

words, Narnia is important to the text as a character is. Narnia is a small, valley country

which was created by Aslan, a lion which represents God. This country lies on the

eastern edge of Narnia and is up north to Archenland. However,

The Land of Talking Beasts is more than simply a geographical area sketched

on the map of imagination. It is also a place drawn out of the experiences,

influences, and interests of the author. […] While aspects of Narnia may be

drawn from features of our own world, they are imbued with a greater sense

of wonder and emotional power. They are certainly a few spots in our world

that resemble Narnia, but there is also much in the construction of the country

beyond the wardrobe [...].66

Even though only Earth, Narnia, the Wood between the Worlds, Aslan's country and

Charn (which is the White Witch's home world), are named in the Chronicles, Lewis's

vision of cosmology is more ample and considers infinite worlds. The Lion, the Witch

and the Wardrobe (1950) is perhaps the most popular British portal fantasy book and

here, the portal is a wardrobe.

The wardrobe introduces a concept that will be emphasized frequently in the

Narnia books: the inside is bigger than the outside. From the outside, the

wardrobe appears very ordinary. It is a known quantity, even to the children.

65 Manlove, Colin, The Fantasy Literature of England, Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire andLondon, Macmillan Press Ltd, 2008, p. 55.

66 Hardy, Elizabeth Baird, Milton, Spencer and The Chronicles of Narnia: literary sources for C.S.Lewis novels, Jefferson, North Carolina, McFarland & Company, Inc., 2007 p.108.

48

However, inside, Lucy finds much more than she expects to. […] Lewis

makes a beautiful transition between England and Narnia. […] Something that

is quite common and small when looked at may be extraordinary and large

when experiences. Even an ordinary wardrobe might contain the world of

Narnia. 67

Summing up, Tolkien and Lewis have inaugurated a new kind of fantasy literature in

which parallel worlds have a key role. It is really interesting, that the authors who

suffered more their influence are Alan Garner, Susan Cooper and Diana Wynne Jones,

who attended Oxford in the early 1950s. Indeed, in the 1950s Tolkien and Lewis were

both writing and lecturing there; thus, they spread their own ideas. Garner, Cooper and

Jones must have absorbed Tolkien and Lewis's teaching, so that some correspondences

can be found in their works. For instance, in Jones's The Lives of Christopher Chant

(1977),

Christopher Chant's travels to other worlds are structured as a walk around a

corner to a location that is the centre of things, a place between the worlds

reminiscent of The Magician's Nephew (1955), Jones's favourite of the Narnia

books.68

Garner, Cooper and Jones are not the only authors who have drawn inspiration from

Tolkien and Lewis's works: indeed, also the American author Ursula K. Le Guin creates

a secondary world in her Earthsea trilogy (1967-72).

Earthsea is a fully-fledged secondary world, with its own history, languages

and, traditions, but this is a very different world to the medieval “British” or

even “European” flavour of Tolkien's Middle-earth, and the similar

landscapes of much other fantasy. Earthsea is an archipelago of islands […].69

One of the main theme of the Chronicles of Narnia, is the conventional Christian

theology which separates clearly good from evil. In the Earthsea trilogy, there is a new

interpretation of this theme: indeed, there is not a physical evil enemy to fight. In other

67 Karkainen, Paul A., Narnia: Unlocking the Wardrobe, Grand Rapids, MI, Fleming H. Revell, 2007 p.10-11.

68 Mendlesohn, Farah, Diana Wynne Jones: Children's Literature and the Fantastic Tradition, NewYork, Routledge Taylor and Francis Group, 2005, p. 80-81.

69 Lee, Stuart D., A companion to J.R.R. Tolkien, Oxford, John Wiley and Sons, Ltd, 2014, p. 289.

49

words, the battle is moral and internal. Also Philip Pullman gets beyond the light versus

dark dispute and tries to put upside down Lewis's ideas. However, it is ironic that the

first volume of His Dark Materials (1995-2000) begins with a child who is hiding in a

wardrobe. The series speaks about two children, Lyra Belacqua and Will Parry, who

move between parallel universes. Obviously, this series hides a more deep purpose: the

examination of existential questions. According to Millicent Lenz,

the subject of His Dark Materials is nothing less than the story of how human

beings, at this critical time in history, might evolve towards a higher level of

consciousness. The trilogy speaks to the existential state of humanity at the

beginning of the new millennium.70

Colin Manlove makes clear that

the trilogy as a whole can be seen as a gradual enlarging of consciousness as it

moves further out into more worlds.71

Here, parallel universes are not secondary elements, whereas they are the essence and

the heart of the whole trilogy. In other words, the trilogy is based on parallel universes

and, without them, it could not exist. Talking of this, Colin Manlove observes that the

whole trilogy is based on the constant inquiry about the way in which the universe

works; moreover, he notices that the reality built by Pullman is complex as our reality

is. In short,

this is a fantasy world in which being portrayed as more real than

nothingness, and as growing more so throughout the narrative.72

The first book of His Dark Materials, Northern Lights (1995), focuses on Lyra, a girl

who lives incredible adventures trying to find her friend who has been kidnapped. Here,

the reader enters in an unfamiliar world, parallel to our own, which is a weird version

of Oxford. In that world there are daemons, witches and strange objects. It seems the

70 Hunt, Peter and Lenz, Millicent, Alternative Worlds in Fantasy Fiction, London and New York,Continuum, 2001, p.123.

71 Manlove, Colin, From Alice to Harry Potter: Children's Fantasy in England, Christchurch,Cyberedition Corporation, 2003, p. 184.

72 Ibidem, 180.

50

combination of civilisation and barbarism. On the contrary,

the setting of The Subtle Knife (1997) is projected to be in “the universe we

know [...]”.73

The reader perceives Will's Oxford as more familiar because this kind of Oxford shares

some features with his/her world. For instance, the reader does not need to know what is

a computer or a car because these objects exist also in his/her world. Moreover, it is

really interesting that the main character, Will, is able to cut windows into other worlds.

Manlove analyses the whole trilogy and observes that The Subtle Knife, even though is

epic, exciting and ambitious, is not as deep as Northern Light; furthermore

there is far more explanation of cosmos here: we are constantly being

informed of the make-up of the multiverse, whereas in the previous books it

had to be guessed and wondered at through hints.74

The '90s is undoubtedly the decade in which the parallel world theme reaches, in fantasy

fiction for children, a huge popularity. Indeed, as well as Pullman, also Neil Gaiman in

1996 sets his novel, Neverwhere, in a parallel world. Neverwhere is a urban fantasy

which speaks about the adventures of Richard Mayhew, a young businessman which

moves from Scotland to London. The story begins in a Scottish pub to celebrate

Richard's move. Even though the party goes on and everybody seem to be happy,

Richard goes out and sits on the pavement. The reader feels immediately that Richard is

a person in transition and a little detached from reality. This same sense of transition

and unrest lasts also after three years, when Richard, who has settled permanently in

London, seems more an observer than an active participant of his own life. Even though

Richard is a young man and not an adolescent, his characterisation reminds the reader of

Diana Wynne Jones's characters; moreover, how Jones stands out has inspired Gaiman.

Gaiman and Jones were close friends and they were linked with a reciprocal high

regard; moreover, on many occasions, Gaiman has remarked how he appreciates Jones's

production, specifically, The Chronicle of Chrestomanci. Undoubtedly, being Jones's

friend was a huge privilege, also because it allowed Gaiman to analyse deeply her73 Hunt, Peter and Lenz, Millicent, Alternative Worlds in Fantasy Fiction, London and New York,

Continuum, 2001, 127.74 Manlove, Colin, From Alice to Harry Potter: Children's Fantasy in England, Christchurch,

Cyberedition Corporation, 2003, p. 183.

51

narrative techniques and it is evident that Gaiman has borrowed her irony and humour

to investigate identity and human nature without sentimentalism.

One night, Richard is going to an important dinner with his girlfriend Jessica, when he

realizes that, near the gutter, there is a girl who is bleeding. Even though Jessica refuses

to help the girl by saying she is only a homeless and she will be fine, Richard decides to

help the girl, and nothing will be the same. Indeed, the following morning Richard finds

out that no one can see him and his life does not exist anymore. London is not the same

Richard knows, he has turned up into London Below. In Neverwhere, the parallel world

is a gloomy, cruel and invisible side of London; indeed, there are two different Londons

which coexist even though there is a very deep gap between them. The London that

everybody knows is called London Above and is described as a safe and stable place in

which life flows predictably and people seem to be happy, whereas London Below is

the invisible side of the city and gathers together the marginalized part of the society. It

is a mysterious, chaotic,

place of pure madness. It was built of lost fragments of London Above: alleys

and roads, and corridors and sewers that had fallen through the cracks over the

millennia and entered the world of the lost and the forgotten.75

Obviously, the London Above ignores that there is another version of the city, totally

unsafe and dark, while the people who inhabit the London Below are aware that another

London exists.

London Below is shaped on the real London and it is a place full of tunnels and clefts;

more precisely, this side of London is made by everything that in London Above has

become old- fashioned. For this reason, it is really interesting that its old- fashioned

appearance, which might recall a sense of immobility, contrasts with its dynamism.

Through the characterisation of these two Londons and the people who inhabit them,

Gaiman explores the postmodern concept of geography and the consequent feeling of

invisibility. It is really interesting that, even though the London Above is described as a

good place to live in and apparently people are satisfied, is full of bitterness and,

definitively, is not so much better than the London Below. That is to say, the cynicism

which characterises the London Above puts it on the same level of London Below and,

in this way, the clear difference between good and evil is brought into question.

75 Gaiman, Neil, Neverwhere, Chatham, Headline Review, 2005, p. 308.

52

Summing up, both Jones and Gaiman have analysed the dichotomy of good and evil by

marking that nothing is totally good or totally evil.

Another important aspect which characterises the London Below is linked with the

anthropomorphization of places. That is to say,

in London Below frequently applies names and meanings that are in direct

contradiction to that of London Above. The Angel Islington, for example,

turns out to be far from good, while the everyman Richard Mayhew ultimately

becomes a great warrior. This strategy is also extended to locations that are

not overtly personified, such as Harrods, which hosts the low-class floating

market, or Knightsbridge more generally. Far from being the upper-class (and

therefore safe) space it holds in London Above this is “NIGHT'S BRIDGE”; a

crossing shrouded in the darkness of night, and the most dangerous place in

London Below.76

Also the characters take part in the characterisation of these two Londons: for example,

Richard's girlfriend, Jessica, which embodies the London Above, represents perfectly

the indifference and the impossibility to perceive the existence of London Below.

Specifically, she demonstrates “her nature” by remaining totally indifferent to the

suffering of the girl on the pavement and by adding that she is somebody else's problem.

On the other hand, the girl rescued by Richard represents the London Below. The girl is

called Door and she belongs to an aristocratic and powerful family of “openers” in

London Below. That is to say, like her parents Portico and Portia, Door has the ability to

create and to open a door in a wall or in a solid surface. For this reason, the role of Door

is also linked with Richard's descent to London Below: in other words, Door represents

the tool which allows Richard to become part of London Below. As we can easily

observe, the characters who belong to London Below, express their essence also

through their name.

It is really striking that, when Richard finally gets back to his old life in London Above,

he examines the people around him with a new awareness and he wonders about their

origin. However, even though everything seems to be normal, he is not happy. The

reason of his unhappiness is due to his transitional nature which prevents him from

76 Round, Julia, “London's Calling: Alternate Worlds and the City as Superhero in ContemporaryBritish-American Comics,” International Journal of Comic Art, X, 1, (2008): 27-28.

53

feeling part of that side of London. In the last scene of the novel, Richard abandons his

normal life to become a London Below inhabitant.

Also Harry Potter's world can be considered as a sort of parallel world. Indeed, in the

Harry Potter series (1997-2007), the reader does not enter a remote world, on the

contrary, he/she enters in a little magical world which is placed within our mundane

world. Potter's world and our world are divided only by the platform 9 ¾ of King's

Cross Station. It is a proper world, with magical schools, villages, sports and a ministry

who regulates the use of magic. Even though Potter's world is not a far away world, it is

fascinating that it is represented as old fashioned and immersed in a medieval

atmosphere. Furthermore, even for the Muggle-educated wizards, there is a lack of

interest in using modern technology.

Our “Muggle” world is represented and described through the wizards' eyes and the

interaction between these two worlds is as much limited as possible. It is very striking

that when Harry is in our Muggle world he is unhappy, while when he is in Hogwarts is

happy. Moreover, even though Arthur Weasley thinks that the Muggle world is

extremely fascinating, the majority of wizards do not share this view. This juxtaposition

allows the treatment of an important issue linked to ethnicity; indeed even though it is

not uncommon that a Muggle and a wizard get married and have a baby, crossing in this

way the bloodlines, there are some fanatic wizards who disapprove of such marriages,

in favour of the purity of breeding.

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry seems a parallel world inside a parallel

world. Indeed, in each book of the series, Hogwarts is presented as a microcosm with a

proper geography, a proper hierarchy, a proper law code and even a proper sport

competition. According to Colin Manlove,

the books are a child's ideal world-a world of friends and fun, of strange

games and adventures, of a turning year governed by the odd rituals and

festivals of a country boarding school, of a life untroubled by the future.77

Since the term “multiverse” has been coined, speaking of parallel universes has

become a little bit old-fashioned. This term was invented by Terry Pratchett, the English

author of Discworld (1983-2013), a popular comic fantasy series, set in a fictional

world. This is a flat world, sustained by four elephants, who in turn, are standing on a77 Manlove, Colin, From Alice to Harry Potter: Children's Fantasy in England, Christchurch,

Cyberedition Corporation, 2003, p 187-188.

54

giant turtle. In Equal Rites (1987), the third volume of the series, Pratchett offers his

idea of multiverse made by

lots of worlds, all nearly the same and all sort of occupying the same place but

all separated by a thickness of a shadow, so that everything that ever could

happen would have somewhere to happen in.78

The existence of parallel universes is really common and widespread also in

another form of storytelling: the comics. Doubtless, comics are considered a form of

storytelling, since they have been recognised as multimodal narratives, who mix

together different semiotic modes as images and words. The most relevant feature

which comics and fantasy books share, is their serial nature and the tendency to develop

spin-off series. Generally, these spin-off series focus on minor characters. In some

cases, due to narrative needs, the main story and its spin-off come together. Thus,

multiple plotlines and huge character casts whose individual stories are

explored separately lead to the diverging and converging plot patterns and

fragile continuity of mainstream comics. In the superhero comic, this has led

to the emergence of the multiverse.79

Multiverse is also the answer to another issue linked with the serial nature of comics.

Since a lot of famous comics have been published for decades, the turnover between

authors is inevitable and provokes, in this way, the raise of some incongruities. These

incongruities are incorporated into the plot and are collocated in parallel worlds,

becoming in this way legitimate narrative devices. For instance,

as DC Comics continued to set its stories in numerous, noncongruent

storyworlds, individual development of the superheroes and irrevocable

events became possible, because in this way series would not have to end.80

DC Comics presented, for the first time, the concept of multiverse in 1965 with the

78 Pratchett, Terry, Equal Rites (Discworld Novel 3),London, Transworld Publishers, 2012, p.203.79 Kukkonen, Karin, Contemporary Comics Storytelling, USA, The Board of Regents of the University

of Nebraska, 2013, p. 187.80 Kukkonen, Karin, “Navigating Infinite Earths: Readers, Mental Models, and the Multiverse of

Superherocomics” in Hatfield, c., Heer, J., Worcester, K., (ed.), The Superhero Reader, USA,University Press of Mississippi, 2013 p. 162.

55

publication of The Flash #123. It is really interesting also that

although the migration across narrative worlds is possible, each of these

superheroes versions is anchored in his or her storyworld. Therefore

superhero comics need to provide a way for readers to keep the character

versions distinct and to relate each version to its own storyworld.81

Also Marvel Comics, the DC Comics “rival”, sets a lot of stories in a multiverse.

Marvel multiverse is a subsection of Omniverse and it is composed of alternate

universes which share a common hierarchy and an analogous nature. Inside Marvel

multiverse, there is Earth-616 which is the main reality in which most of Marvel stories

are set.

81 Ibidem, p. 162.

56

3.2 Multiverse in Jones's The Chronicles of Chrestomanci

Certainly, one of the elements which distinguishes Jones's plots is the

bifurcation of time and space which provokes world splittings. Thus, the multiverse is

considered both the basis of Chrestomanci's universe and the main theme of the whole

Chrestomanci series. Chrestomanci's multiverse is limitless and it is originated from the

division of an important occurrence; in other words, a relevant event, as for instance a

battle, can end in multiple different ways, and each possibility originates a new world.

As Gwendolen Chant explains to his brother, Eric (Cat) Chant,

there are hundreds of other worlds only some are nicer than other, they are

formed when there is a big event in History like a battle or an earthquake

when the result can be two or more quite different things. Both those things

happen but they cannot exist together so the world splits into two worlds

which start to go different after that.82

It is really funny that in almost every story of the series, there is a character who ignores

not only that there are a lot of other worlds, but also how they have been created. This is

really useful, because it is a device which allows to underline the importance of

multiverse and it explains it to the reader, and to stress worlds' peculiarities. Indeed,

even though these worlds are different, they share one important feature: people speak

the same languages. For this reason, parallel worlds are known by the name of Related

Worlds.

“ […] how many worlds do you think make up the Related Worlds?”

“Twelve,” said Christopher, because he remembered that Tacroy sometimes

called the Anywheres the Related Worlds.

“Very good!” said Flavian, “Though, actually, there are more than that,

because each world is really a set of worlds, which we call a Series. The only

82

Jones, Diana Wynne, The Chronicles of Chrestomanci: Charmed life, New York, HarperCollins,2007, p.125.

57

one which is just a single world is Eleven.83

As the reader can learn from Flavian, who is Christopher's teacher, the structure of

Chrestomanci's multiverse is really complex. A world is not a single entity, but it is

composed of several realities or worlds. These worlds are called Series and they are

enumerated according to a retrogressive order:

“Why are they numbered back to front?” Christopher asked.

“Because we think One was the original world of the twelve,” Flavian said.

“Anyway it was the Great Mages of One who first discovered the other

worlds, and they did numbering.”84

Certainly, as Flavian explains, also the Series are the result of different possibilities;

thus, they have been originated in the same way Related Worlds did. As we have seen,

each Related World has been split in many dimensions, except for Series Eleven. Indeed

even though it is known as Series Eleven, it is not properly a Series since it is made by

only one world. This Series is totally controlled by magic and it does not enjoy a good

reputation among the other Related Worlds: indeed, the people who live there, are

considered almost savages. Moreover, Series Eleven is described as a place in which the

dichotomy between good and evil is unclear.

“[...] The Dright puts someone in another world from time to time when he

wants to study it. This time he decided he wanted to study good and evil […].

They do not go by right and wrong in Eleven. They do not consider

themselves human-Or no, I suppose they think they are the only real people,

and they study the rest of you like something in a zoo when the Dright

happens to feel interested.”85

The Dright is the ruler of Series Eleven. He is an authoritarian figure who appears as a

kind of God with white curly hair and a crisp beard. His face does not disclose any

expression, however he emanates both power and ancient knowledge. The weird,

unpleasant, and dangerous nature of Series Eleven is underlined also by a very young

83 Jones, Diana Wynne, The Chronicles of Chrestomanci:The Lives of Christopher Chant, New York,HarperCollins, 2007, p. 422.

84 Ibidem, p. 423.85 Ibidem, p. 561.

58

Christopher. Indeed, even though, initially, Christopher does not know anything about

Related Worlds and Series Eleven, he unconsciously avoids that world:

[…] there was one place that did not want to go to it. It was quite near, but he

always found himself avoiding it. He set off sliding, scrambling, edging

across bulging wet rock, and climbing up or down, until he found another

valley and another path.86

Undoubtedly, the Twelve Series fulfills an important role in each Chrestomanci's book

because it is Chrestomanci's world of origin and for this reason, it acts as a basis for

comparison in the analysis of all the other Related Worlds. However, Twelve Series acts

also as starting and returning point of Chrestomanci's travels; in other words, he leaves

from here and, after every mission, he returns here. Analysing Chrestomanci's books, by

starting from The Lives of Christopher Chant (1988), the reader can find out about

Christopher's story and he/she learns that when Chrestomanci was a child, he travelled

to other worlds, through the realm of dreams. At the beginning of the book,

Christopher's night journeys are his secrets and he visits and explores the other worlds,

driven only by his innocent curiosity. Thus, also his report of what he has seen is totally

innocent:

the Anywheres were mostly quite different from London. They were hotter or

colder, with strange trees and stranger houses. Sometimes the people in them

looked ordinary, sometimes their skin was bluish or reddish and their eyes

were peculiar [...]87

In Conrad's Fate (2005), Christopher is already a teenager who has been educated; thus,

his perception of other worlds is objective and no more naïve. Talking with Conrad, he

explains that he does not belong to Series Seven, while he comes from another different

universe called Series Twelve. Series Seven is described as a modern world in which

science and technology are advanced; for instance, old typewriters have been replaced

by new computers. However, the contemporary appearance, given by technological

progress, contrasts with some features which are typical of pre-modern epochs. For

instance, in Series Seven, the servants have to clean the boots and the compulsory

86 Ibidem, p. 271-272.87 Ibidem, p. 272.

59

schooling is up only to twelve years. In the last part of the book, while Millie is talking

with Conrad and she explains why she is so hungry, the reader discovers that each

world has its own currency:

“I had nothing to buy food with, you see,” she explained. “And the witch only

did breakfast. The last breakfast was days ago.”

“Did you run away from school without any money, then? I asked.

“Pretty well,” Millie said. “Money from Series Twelve would not work in

Series Seven, so I only took what was in my pocket. [...]”88

In The Magician's of Caprona (1980) and in Witch Week (1982), Chrestomanci is not

the main character: indeed, in each story, he appears because people have invoked him

to obtain help. In The Magicians of Caprona, Chrestomanci makes clear that, even

though he is an employee of the British Government who normally does not intervene

in non-British issues, this time he makes an exception. He can interfere because one

member of the family, Elizabeth, is English and she expresses clearly the desire to be

helped. In this case, Chrestomanci does not cross different galaxies to reach a different

world, while he simply travels across the states which make Series Twelve. It is really

interesting that Caprona seems to be set in 16th century Italy.

Also in Witch Week, Chrestomanci intervenes to help people in danger. In this case, he

has been invoked by two girls which live in another world. It is really funny that when

Chrestomanci “lands,” he does not know where he has been summoned, for this reason

he tries to discover in which Series he stands. Most of the time, the people who have

called him, ignore that their world is not the only one and this happens also in this case:

“Would one of you tell me where are now?” he said.

[…] “I mean,” the man said patiently, “do you happen to know which world,

galaxy, unless I know which this one is, I shall not find it very easy to help

you.”

[…] You are not really from another world, are you?” he said.

“I am precisely that,” said the man. “Another world full of people just like

you, running side by side with this one. There are myriads of them. So which

one is this one?”89

88 Jones, Diana Wynne, The Chronicles of Chrestomanci: Conrad's Fate, New York, HarperCollins,2008, p. 243.

89 Jones, Diana Wynne, The Chronicles of Chrestomanci: Witch Week, New York, HarperCollins, 2007,

60

Chrestomanci is a little confused: he struggles to understand in which world he has been

summoned and everything seems strange to him. The strangest thing is linked with the

wide presence of witches in a place where witchcraft is illegal. Since Chrestomanci

comes from an old-fashioned world, he is really fascinated by everything is modern. He

examines trucks and cars, and he is pleasantly surprised to discover that the stockings

are made with a strange fabric called nylon. However, pretty soon Chrestomanci

realizes that there is something wrong with this Series, and he observes that this world

should not exist because it has been created erroneously. Thus, he proposes to

“[...] put your world back into the other one, where it really belongs.”

“What would happen to us if you did?” asked Charles.

“Nothing much. You would simply melt quietly into the people you really are

in that world,” said Chrestomanci.90

In Charmed Life (1977), the reader learns in detail Chrestomanci's cosmology; however,

the plot does not focus on Chrestomanci's travels to other Related Worlds. Indeed, here,

Chrestomanci acts mostly as Cat's mentor and, Gwendolen and Janet, two inexperienced

girls, are those who travel. Gwendolen is Cat's sister and she is an ambitious,

unscrupulous, and sly girl who wants to improve her social position. In doing so, she

answers in no one and she does not hesitate to hurt his brother. One day, she decides she

wants to go to another world, so she replaces herself with Janet. Janet is another

Gwendolen who comes from another world and she has only the appearance of

Gwendolen. Indeed, she has a completely different personality and she is not

unscrupulous and mean as Gwendolen. Since this is the first book of the series which

has been published, this replacement is very important because it introduces some key-

elements which will be recurring also in the following books. In this way, the reader

learns that in Chrestomanci's multiverse, people have an alter ego. In other words,

it was very uncommon for people not to have at least one exact double in a

world of the same series-usually people had a whole string of doubles, all

along the set.91

p. 471-472.90 Jones, Diana Wynne, The Chronicles of Chrestomanci: Witch Week, New York, HarperCollins, 2007,

p. 501.91 Jones, Diana Wynne, The Chronicles of Chrestomanci: Charmed life, New York, HarperCollins,

61

In some way, all these souls are connected to one another; thus, Gwendolen's behaviour

has had some consequences. That is to say, by altering her position, she has changed

also the position of the other Gewndolens.

I took a look at once to see what had happened to Gwendolen and the seven

other girls. Gwendolen was in her element. And Jennifer, who came after

Romillia, ia as though as Gwendolen and has always wished she was an

orphan; whereas Queen Caroline, whom Gwendolen displaced, was as

miserable as Romillia, and had run away three times already. And it was the

same with the other five.92

The person who fulfils the role of Chrestomanci is special and he is the only one who

does not have one or more doubles. This happens because

the lives that would have been spread out over a whole set of worlds get

concentrated in one person. And so do all the talents that those other eight

people might have had.93

In other words, Chrestomanci does not have doubles because he has nine lives.

Obviously, this kind of person is extremely rare. In The Lives of Christopher Chant,

there are two people with nine lives: this happens because Gabriel de Witt is the

Chrestomanci in office and Christopher Chant is his student. In Charmed Life, the

situation is similar because Christopher Chant has become the Chrestomanci in office

and Cat is his student. Losing a life is really easy and in Charmed Life, Gwendolen

confesses that she has stolen many Cat's lives. She has also used one of Cat's lives, to

reach her new world.

Farah Mendlesohn examines Chrestomanci's multiverse by adopting an

approach which focuses on portals. As I have briefly outlined, portals mark

metaphorically also the moral growth of characters who cross them. Mendlesohn

observes that

although Jones accepts the theme of moral growth, her writing of the elements

2007, p. 161.92 Ibidem, p. 255.93 Ibidem, p. 206.

62

of transition and exploration frequently express a cohesive critique of the

form's narrative.94

Usually, in portal fantasy novels, the reader is convinced that the protagonist is always

right and what is seen by him/her is true. Jones's novels, through the use of irony,

question this assumption as it destabilizes, in this way, the structure of portal fantasy

novels. For this reason, in Jones's books, portals are necessary to wonder about the

nature of portal fantasy in itself.

The innovations which are present in all Jones's books, appear also in the lack of

passive acceptance of what is seen and explained by the protagonist; in other words, the

reader is almost forced to wonder about the truthfulness of what is told by the main

character. Another important element of innovation, is linked with the character's free

will: indeed, most of Jones's characters do not accept time travel passively, on the

contrary, they cross the portal voluntarily. The only exception, which stands out, is

represented by Janet, who does not change voluntarily Series. In this case, Janet is

firstly forced to accept Gwendolen's choice but, at the end of the book, she admits that

she prefers to live with her new family. Janet changes her mind because she has

discovered that her parents have not noticed the replacement.

“I can sand you back,” said Chrestomanci. “It is not quite so easy with

Gwendolen's world missing from the series, but do not think it can not be

done.”

“No, no. That is all right when I am used to it. I was hoping to come back

here-but it is rather a wrench. You see-” […] “You see, Mum and Dad have

not noticed the difference.”95

Initially, it has been really hard to adapt for Janet also because she ends up in a world

totally different from her own, which looks like our contemporary world. For instance,

in Gwendolen's world, technology is not as advanced as in Janet's world.

“Do not have cars at all?” Janet asked. “Everyone has cars in my world.”

“Rich people do,” said Cat. “Chrestomanci sent his to meet us off the train.”

94 Mendlesohn, Farah, Diana Wynne Jones: Children's Literature and the Fantastic Tradition, NewYork, Routledge Taylor and Francis Group, 2005. p.80

95 Jones, Diana Wynne, The Chronicles of Chrestomanci: Charmed life, New York, HarperCollins,2007, p. 254.

63

“And you have electric light,” said Janet. “But everything else is old-

fashioned compared with my world. I suppose people can get what they want

by witchcraft. Do you have factories, or long-playing records, or high-rise

buildings, or television, or airplanes at all?”

“I do not know what airplanes are,” said Cat. He had no idea what most of the

other things were either [...]96

Mendlesohn stresses also that Janet is not the only one who suffers the change: also Cat

(Eric) is upset. Cat is the only one who knows that Gwendolen has replaced herself and,

to keep the secret, is compelled to help Janet. Indeed, as we have seen before, Janet

comes from a different epoch in which customs and traditions are totally different; thus,

she completely relies on Cat's advice. For this reason, the texts shifts in Cat's

perspective and it shows both Cat's worries, and his awareness to be necessary also in

doing simple things.

“Cat, what does Gwendolen wear?

Cat thought all girls knew what girls wore. “The usual things-petticoats,

stocking, dress, boots-you know.”

“No, I do not,” said Janet. “I always wear trousers”

Cat felt his problems mounting up.97

Mendlesohn continues her analysis by adding also that there is one more peculiar

feature, linked with the awareness of travelling between worlds: it is exactly the reaction

to these travels, which changes from one character to another. Jones's characters have

complex personalities, thus it is obvious that they have complex and different reactions

to travelling. In other words, we can say that in Jones's novels, characters' personalities

depend on the way they perceive the journeys. For instance, in The Lives of Christopher

Chant (1988), the reader gets in touch with a young, inexperienced and naïve

Christopher who

thought everyone had the kind of drams he had, too. He did not think they

were worth mentioning.98

96 Ibidem, p.143.97 Ibidem, p.129-130.98 Jones, Diana Wynne, The Chronicles of Chrestomanci: The Lives of Christopher Chant, New York,

HarperCollins, 2007, p. 270.

64

It is really interesting that, even in adulthood Christopher remains so pure. That is to

say, even when he grows up and becomes the new Chrestomanci, he is still kindhearted

and trusts people. Perhaps, his besetting sin is to trust people's honesty.

The relationship between the portal and its user is not unilateral: this relation does not

influence only a user's nature but it influences also the way in which the portal is

structured. Indeed, each portal belongs only to one character and is moulded on the

person's world view. For instance, Christopher perceives The Place Between, which is

the place that he reaches in his dreams, as a wonderful world with

a valley […] with green grass. The sun is setting and it is making the stream

down the middle look pink99

whereas Tacroy, who is Christopher's friend, perceives it as an imperceptibly pink haze.

Mendlesohn remarks also that portals in Jones's books are humans' creations and

act as signifiers, rather than facilitators, in the text.100

Moreover, the second key element of portal fantasy novel is linked to the way in which

the rhetoric of fantasy is influenced by the “explorative mode”. In other words,

the portal quest fantasy is essentially a tale of exploration in a strange new

land. Its mimetic form is the travelogue, and just as with a travelogue it is a

form that relies intensely on the assumption that what the reader is told about

the configuration of the world is true.101

Mendlesohn focuses now on landscape and she observes that in Jones's novels, the

landscape depends on characters' interests. That is to say, characters' penchants shape

the description of landscape. The best example can be found in The Lives of

Christopher Chant, where Christopher perceives and describes the landscape as

wonderful and new, as the place in which he desires to find himself when he is away

from home. It is curious that in this place, he meets the silly ladies who are none other

99 Ibidem, p. 299.100 Mendlesohn, Farah, Diana Wynne Jones: Children's Literature and the Fantastic Tradition, New

York, Routledge Taylor and Francis Group, 2005, p. 82.101 Ibidem, p. 83.

65

than mermaids. Here, mermaids embody perfectly the role of temptresses, which literary

tradition gave to them; moreover, they mark the beginning of Christopher's sexual

maturation. Christopher is fascinated because the silly ladies are naked and, by watching

them, he can experience something that in his world he is not allowed to see. It is really

meaningful that when mermaids speak with Christopher, they use a typical babytalk.

Christopher's adventures into Related Worlds, do not last for a long time; about that,

Mendlesohn supposes that if the character remains in the other world for too long, the

adventures might lose their extraordinary features and there might not be anything else

to describe. She reasons also about the term “new” in relation to what Christopher

perceives during his journeys, and she observes that

“new” is what is new to the traveller, not to the people left behind.102

The term “new”, is also put in relation to the traveller's capability of change. Indeed, in

traditional fantasy novel,the main character is bearer of innovations, while the realm of

fantasy is situated into an invariable past, marking in this way, an imperialist tendency.

In other words, the traveller which is commonly contemporary to us, shows to the

otherworld people how to improve their society, through modern devices. In this way,

he/she acts as an herald of change. In Charmed life, Janet acts as the herald of change

when, during a dinner, suggests how to fix Chrestomanci's allergy of silver.

“The really difficult thing is mealtimes,” said Millie. “He cannot do a thing

with a knife and a fork in his hands-and Gwendolen would do awful things

during dinner.”

“How stupid!” said Janet. “Why in earth do you not use stainless steel

cutlery?”

Millie and Chrestomanci looked at one another. “I never thought of it!” said

Millie. 103

Here, the atmosphere is funny, without a didactic purpose: Janet speaks with simplicity

by saying something which, at her eyes, is totally normal. Janet does not take an

outclass attitude and Millie, Chrestomanci, and the other people who are at the dinner,

102 Ibidem, p. 85.103 Jones, Diana Wynne, The Chronicles of Chrestomanci: Charmed life, New York, HarperCollins,

2007, p. 263.

66

appreciate the advise because they understand her sincerity. Looking like an innocent

consideration, the imperialist perspective is mocked.

Also the scholar Karina Hill, analyses The Chronicles of Chrestomanci by emphasizing

the role of the gateway. She observes that, in Jones's novels, there is not only one kind

of gate because each gate differs in appearance, direction and use. Moreover, each gates

is shaped by the customs of the place in which it is situated. As it is clear in Charmed

Life, the gateway is almost often described quite literally: the entrance to Elsewhere is

in the centre of a beautiful and flowered garden permeated by magic. There is also a

gush of clear water at the roots of an apple tree.

The ruins were two sides of a broken archway. There was a slab of stone

which must have fallen from the top of the arch lying nearby at the foot of the

three. There was no other sign of a gate.104

In this description there are two powerful symbols: the apple tree and the water. Indeed,

in folklore and literary tradition, the apple tree is associated, apart from Adam and Eve's

Original Sin, to health and immortality and it is also a symbol of rebirth, beauty, magic

and youth. Also the clear water is a powerful symbol of rebirth and purity.

Hill continues her analysis and compares the gate of Charmed Life with the gate of

Witch Week. The emblematic name of this gateway, Portway Oaks, shows how many

features, proper of fantasy literary tradition, have been adopted to create it. Portway

Oaks looks like a tribute to the most classical realm of fairy tale because it is described

as a ring made beech trees, lower down the forest. Hill observes that

this is, apparently, an extremely restrictive gate, as it does not actually allow

entry out to another parallel world but provides the means of entry for a

particular person although it can be activated by anyone knowing the secret to

operating it.105

Hill affirms that portals have also an important function, linked to the character's

increase of knowledge. In The Chronicles of Chrestomanci, knowledge means power,

thus, through the boost of knowledge, the character obtains a self-empowerment. In

104 Ibidem, p. 223-224.105 Hill Karina, “Dragons and Quantum Foams: Mythic Archetypes and Modern Physics in Selected

Works by Diana Wynne Jones” in Teya Rosenberg et al (ed.), Diana Wynne Jones: An Exciting andExacting Wisdom, New York, Peter Lang, 2002, p. 42.

67

each book of the series, there is a character who is firstly ignorant and then, he/she fixes

his/her problems by achieving the necessary knowledge to control magic. For instance,

in Witch Week, Nan and Estelle do not know anything about Portway Oaks and its

functioning, moreover they cast the spell without knowing what will happen. Indeed,

they do what is written in the piece of paper, which the old lady gave them. The girls,

once arrived at Portway Oaks, pronounce three time the word “Chrestomanci” and

suddenly, a man appears, leaving astonished the girls. In Charmed Life, while

Gwendolen is partially educated, her brother Cat does not know anything about magic

and he thinks he is magic-less. Gwendolen knows enough magical theory to steal both

magic and lives to her brother Cat. She knows also the geography of Related Worlds

and she uses Cat's life to reach another world. Cat reminds his mentor

Christopher/Chrestomanci when he was young. Indeed, they share both a naïve attitude

and the same nonchalance in using magic. Like Christopher, who has travelled across

universes without education, using his own intuition, also Cat compensates for his

ignorance using his intuition to activate the gate, in the enchanted garden.

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3.3 Traces of Heterotopia in The Chronicles of Chrestomanci

The term “Heterotopia” is used by postmodern literary critics to describe the

feature of uncertainty which is proper of spatial and temporal conditions in postmodern

fiction; however, the origin of this concept must be attributed to Michel Foucault. In

1967, the scholar Michel Foucault affirmed that the main subject of study of his

contemporary scholars, was space rather than time. This is because the feeling of

anxiety perceived in his period,

has to do fundamentally with space, no doubt a great deal more than time.

Time probably appears to us as one of the various distributive operations that

are possible for the elements that are spread out is pace.106

He also added that space is none other than a reconsideration of modernist

spatialisation, in which there is the control of public and social space. However, these

spaces are unreal because they do not embody the real needs of the society. The unreal

spaces are the utopias. He coined the term “Heterotopia,” to describe

the “real” places produced by society as part of its continuous coming into

being.107

On the other hand, Foucault did not propose heterotopia as a general model for urban

social spaces, but he focused on particular social spaces in which the spatial dynamics

are independent from history. That is to say, these spaces have an ambiguous spatiality

because this spatiality is correlated to the identity formation in a background of

resistance acts. It is interesting also that both the spaces which are totally controlled,

and the spaces of total freedom, are considered spaces of social order. Foucault

borrowed the therm heterotopia from the study of anatomy: indeed, since in anatomy

106

Foucault, Michel, “Of Other Spaces: Utopias and Heterotopias” [http://web.mit.edu/allanmc/www/foucault1.pdf, accessed November 2014]

107 Smethurst, Paul, The Postmodern Chronotope: Reading Space and Time in Contemporary Fiction,Amsterdam, Editions Rodopi B.V, 2000, p. 41.

69

heterotopia expresses an extra part of the body, Foucault's heterotopia expresses places

of Otherness

whose existence sets up unsettling juxtaposition of incommensurate “objects”

which challenge the way we think, especially the way our thinking is ordered.

Heterotopia have a shock effect that derives from their different mode of

ordering.108

Summing up, Foucault proposes the term heterotopia to describe a specific and useful

model to understand the changes and the feeling of anxiety which are proper of

postmodern society. Heterotopia is defined by simultaneity, unlikeness, unity and

dissimilarity. That is to say, heterotopia is marked through the apposition of things,

which normally do not match, and by the consequent confusion which has been created

by these representations.

It is not the relationship within a space that is the source of this heterotopic

relationship […] it is how this relationship is seen form outside, from the

standpoint of another perspective, that allows a space to be seen as

heterotopic.109

Over the years, this concept has been debated by many scholars who think that

heterotopia can be considered as a useful category. Indeed, in literary criticism,

heterotopia is considered a functional concept which forces the reader to go beyond the

utopia/dystopia categorisation. Heterotopia reorients the conception of place, human

relations and the dynamics of power. Ralph Pordzik examines the concept of

heterotopia starting from Foucault's point of view, and he observes that

postmodern heterotopia thwarts all efforts on the side of the reader to create a

coherent illusion of the story, meaning and representation in the text. In de-

totalizing and de-temporalizing space it creates, dissent and discontinuity

dictate the course of action, effectively putting into practice in the realm of the

literary text the “pluriverse” of concepts, fictions and discourses that

108 Hetherington, Kevin, The Badlands of Modernity: Heterotopia and social ordering, London and NewYork, Taylor and Francis E-Library, 2003, p. 42.

109 Ibidem, p. 43.

70

constitutes postmodernism's revisionist agenda.110

Heterotopia is the postmodern tool, like dialogism, heteroglossia, multifocalization, and

indeterminacy, which subvert some fundamental principles proper of classic literature;

furthermore it accepts the existence of multiple realities and multiple truths. For this

reason, it is not strange that

it questions the very existence of a perceptible reality outside the author's

mind and, as a consequence, the possibility of mediating this reality to the

reader by means of language.111

However, heterotopia acts also by removing the boundaries between fiction and reality

and, in this way, the reader perceives a deep liminality. Maria Nikolajeva analyses

heterotopia by considering it as a myriad of conflicting worlds; moreover, she

underlines that, its conflicting essence, is expressed by the etymology of the term itself.

Indeed, heterotopia originates from Greek and it is composed by “hetero” which

highlights the difference between the worlds, and “topia” which means place. As we

have discussed, heterotopic space is complex, unstable and unpredictable; thus, through

its unreliability, it undermines conventional children's fiction which is simple, stable

and reassuring. Postmodern children's fiction becomes, in this way, darker and less

predictable, by offering the reader an unclear division between good and evil.

Undoubtedly, all Jones's production is characterized by the presence of heterotopia,

which reveals itself in the text, both explicitly and implicitly. Nikolajeva observes that,

differently from the majority of fantasy novels, in Jones's books, literary space is

constructed following one unique feature. This feature is none other than the choice to

start the stories in Otherworlds. Our world seems mysterious and strange and it is

presented through the point of view of an ordinary character; in this way, the reader's

curiosity is stimulated. Furthermore, the mystery which envelops our world has a

powerful cognitive effect, which pushes the reader to take a look into it as an outsider.

The reader can, at the same time, investigate the particular features which mark our

110 Lacey, Lauren J., “Heterotopian possibilities in Science Fiction by Stephen Baxter, Terry Pratchett,Samuel Delany and Ursula K. Le Guin” in Susan M. Bernardo et al (ed.), Environments in ScienceFiction: Essays on Alternative Space, Jefferson, North Carolina, McFarland and Company, Inc., 2014,p. 12.

111 Nikolajeva, Maria, “Heterotopia as a Reflection of Postmodern Consciousness in the Works of DianaWynne Jones”, in Teya Rosenberg et al (ed.), Diana Wynne Jones: An Exciting and Exacting Wisdom,New York, Peter Lang, 2002, p. 25.

71

world, and bring into question our values and our behaviours. This technique is

commonly labelled by literary critics as defamiliarization technique. Exactly, this

technique consists in

presenting familiar setting and events as if they were unfamiliar, for instance,

bringing in a visitor from another world to our own, so that we experience it

through their perception, the familiar as if it were new and surprising. Yet

novice readers may lack knowledge to decide whether the possible world is

close or far away from our reality, and this, again, stimulates cognitive

activity. A fantasy text prompts readers to pay attention since there may be

unfamiliar facts about the possibles world that are of consequence.112

Nikolajeva highlights also that the defamiliarization technique allows Jones's readers to

wonder about existential queries. For instance, the reader wonders about the nature of

reality and the nature of truth. This kind of questions expresses clearly the postmodern

point of view. In The Chronicles of Chrestomanci, there are a lot of characters who are

split physically, emotionally or mentally, between two worlds. They live, in this way, a

liminal existence which can be analysed as

a reflection of a contemporary young person's split of mind. An adolescent

exists in marginal, unstable zone between childhood and adulthood; Jones's

adolescent characters struggle with their sense of root-lessness and

splitness.113

Summing up, Jones's multiverse represents the character's rift and it offers a twisted

portrayal of the reality in which he/she lives. Additionally, in the Chronicles of

Chrestomanci, the two most representative queries of postmodernism are taken to

extremes: the character's division between several worlds, leads the reader to wonder

about what is real and if a parallel reality may be considered as a more real than another.

As we have seen, magic is a key element in Jones's fiction and it is also the feature

which distinguishes our boring world from Otherworlds. Furthermore, in

Chrestomanci's world, the magic metaphor revels all its postmodern core because of its112 Nikolajeva, Maria, Reading for Learning: Cognitive Criticism and Children's Literature, Amsterdam,

Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2014, p. 49. 113 Nikolajeva, Maria, “Heterotopia as a Reflection of Postmodern Consciousness in the Works of Diana

Wynne Jones”, in Teya Rosenberg et al (ed.), Diana Wynne Jones: An Exciting and Exacting Wisdom,New York, Peter Lang, 2002, p. 27.

72

instability and unpredictability. In other words, these worlds bring into question the

laws which regulate nature and they upset, in this way, the positivistic nineteenth

century perception of universe, as something constant.

Our world can be associated metaphorically to the adult's world, and the character's rift

is none other than the result of the child's facing with the adult's world. Nikolajeva

validates this interpretation by saying that it has been developed by contemporary

mythical criticism which sustains that all fiction is a “mindscape”. In other words,

fiction is not the representation of external reality, on the contrary, it is the

manifestation of internal and intimate life. This interpretation may be applied

specifically to fantasy fiction, because the majority of the events narrated are not

directly linked with the kind of life that the reader knows. In this sense,

heterotopia then becomes a reflection of the adolescent's chaotic worldview.

Defamiliarization indicates the emotions of young people faced with a new

unfamiliar, and disturbing phase in their lives. The uncontrolled and

uncontrollable magic is yet another component of the instability of the young

protagonists' psyches.114

Jones's characters experience a maturity path also through the questioning of authority:

indeed, the young protagonists discover and measure themselves against Chrestomanci,

a government official who controls the use of magic among all the parallel worlds.

However, a trace of defamiliarization is evident also in another protagonist's discovery:

indeed, in the Live of Christopher Chant, the protagonist discovers his magical skills

which destabilize his life.

It is really interesting that parents, even though they represent a kind of authority, are

defamiliarised and they reveal also all the features proper of heterotopia. For instance,

Christopher's uncle, who tries to substitute Christopher's father, is powerful and his use

of magic is uncontrolled; moreover he is ambiguous and he lacks morality. Nikolajeva

reinforces her argument and she affirms that the character's split mind is a consequence

of heterotopia, it is a mechanism of defence which works because the adolescent is

reluctant to accept the failure of adult's authority. Indeed, adolescence is a complicated

step in human life in which stability is fundamental; furthermore, during this period, it

is fundamental that the child can count on parental guidance.

114 Ibidem, p. 27.

73

At the end of her analysis, Nikolajeva, takes stock of what she has examined and she

concludes by affirming that

heterotopia is used in Jones's works as a reflection of the contemporary

adolescent's ruptured and confused worldview. By placing life's most

dramatic conflicts in Otherworlds, the author defamiliarizes them, which both

enhances and detaches their impact. As a postmodern concept, heterotopia

conveys the feelings of young people born and raised in a complex and

ambiguous world, in which they are deprived of the guidance and support of

any parental figures.115

115 Ibidem, p.38.

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4 Time, History and Folkloric Tradition: an indissoluble link

4.1 Jones's History Rewriting

As we have observed in the previous chapter, multiverse in Jones's The

Chronicles of Chrestomanci can be analysed as a temporal heterotopia in which there

are some possible “time zones” which coexist, in order to confuse the relationships

among history and temporal narrative structures. That it is to say, the structure of

Chrestomanci's multiverse allows the reader to get in touch with alternative histories;

specifically, it allows the reader to explore and to take part in another version of an

important historical event.

In an interview conducted by Charles Butler on March 2001, Diana Wynne

Jones explained why she had chosen to change some big historical events. She added

also that the rewriting of history was a direct consequence of the multiplication of

worlds. When she started to write Charmed Life in 1977, the idea of parallel worlds was

pretty new. However she grasped all the narrative potentialities and she created her

multiverse and her history. At the basis of her choices, there is the desire to explore the

“if-worlds”:

it is fascinating to think “What if?” There have been a lot of programs about

World War II on television latterly, and they are full of “What if?” moments.

If only somebody had taken the risk this or that action we would have lost that

war. There are about six times when it was clear we were hanging on by our

fingernails; and somebody just had to come along and stamp, but they never

did. That always fascinating me, the pivotal thing that will make another,

alternative stream of history.116

Recently, history has obtained a new interest and it has become the focus of a subgenre

called “alternative or alternate history”. Contrary to what it might be thought, the

rewriting of history is a complex and a very fascinating theme which has

appeared in a multiplicity of cultural forms: novels, short stories, films,116 Butler, Charles, “Interview with Diana Wynne Jones” in Teya Rosenberg et al (ed.), Diana Wynne

Jones: An Exciting and Exacting Wisdom, New York, Peter Lang, 2002, p.166

75

televisions programs, comic books, historical monographs and essays, and

internet web sites. […] In short, as shown by this flurry of activity, alternate

history has become a veritable phenomenon in contemporary Western

culture.117

Alternate history does not spare either children's literature and it is very interesting

because the treatment of history in children's fiction has always been a little bit

controversial. Alternate history, in a way, combines learning with fun: even though it

proposes a different version of a past event, it helps the young reader approach real

history. Alternative history is

defined precisely by its divergence from historical consensus. […] By

“alternative histories,” we refer to texts that show, not what happened in the

past but what might have happened had circumstances differed in one or more

respects.118

Even though alternative history is proper of science-fiction and fantasy, it is considered

also among historians; between historians, the alternative realities are known as

“counterfactuals.” Even though alternative realities are considered useless in studying

history, they are considered as some kinds of vehicles of memory:

speculative accounts about the past are driven by many of the same

psychological forces that determine how the past takes shape in remembrance.

[…] The desire to avoid guilt, the question for vindication-these and other

related sentiments all influence how alternate histories represents how the past

might have been, just how they influence how people remember hoe it

“really” was.119

The science-fiction scholar Karen Hellekson, who is considered an authority in

the study of alternate realities, observes that alternative realities affect the nature of time

and linearity, by transforming the world and our perception of reality. In other words,

117 Rosenfeld, Gavriel, “Why Do We Ask “What If?”: Reflections on the Function of the AlternateHistory,” History and Theory, XLI, 4, (2002): 90-103, p. 90-91.

118 Butler, Catherine, Reading History in Children's Books, Basingstoke, Hampshire, Macmillan, 2012,p.107-8.

119 Rosenfeld, Gavriel, “Why Do We Ask “What If?”: Reflections on the Function of the AlternateHistory,” History and Theory, XLI, 4, (2002): 90-103, p. 93.

76

alternative history transforms the past and, in this way, there are modifications also in

the present and future. Alternative realities inquire the nature of history also in relation

to causality; furthermore, they invites the reader to wonder why and how our world has

become like that.

Alternative histories, are commonly divided into some classifications. William Joseph

Collins, distinguishes between four different categories which are settled on subject's

point of view. That is to say, his categorization focuses on the relationship between

alternative histories, according to the reader's point of view. On the contrary, Karen

Hellekson's division focuses on the moment of the break: that it is to say, she focuses on

the breaking point between world of alternative history and our world. These two

different categorisation can be schematised:

Collins's categories: Hellekson's categories:

“Pure uchronia” deals only with

alternative history's world, without

any reference to other realities;

“Nexus story” which involves the

time-travel stories and the battle

stories, and it occurs at the precise

moment of the break.

“Plural uchronia” which, as the

name suggests, combines the

alternative reality with reader's

reality.

True alternate history,” which

happens long time after the

moment of the break and it consists

of alternate histories with different

physical laws.

“Infinite presents” or the story of

parallel worlds

“Parallel words story” which

implies that there was no break-

that all events that could have

occurred did occur.120

“time-travel alteration” which is

about travellers who come back

into the past, to change it.

Unfortunately, these concepts are only partially useful in children's literature because

the general situation is, most of the time, more unclear and mixed.

120 Hellekson, Karen, The Alternate History: Refiguring Historical Time, Kent, Ohio, The Kent StateUniversity Press, 2001, p. 5.

77

One of the first authors who has dealt with the theme of alternative history in a

fantasy novel for children, is undoubtedly Joan Aiken. Aiken has managed this topic,

insomuch as it has been the main theme of her The Wolves Chronicles. The series is

composed by eleven books; it started in 1962 with the publication of The Wolves of

Willoughby Chase, and it ended with The Witch of Clatteringshaws which was

published in 2005, after Aiken's death. The books are about the adventures of two

children, Simon and Dido, and they are set in 1832, some time after the ascension to the

throne of King James III.

Precisely, the entire series is set in a fictional 19th century, in which the Glorious

Revolution has never happened. Aiken decided to subvert history with a double didactic

purpose: indeed, Aiken's history alteration is a way to reminds children that there is a

connection with the past. That is to say, according to Aiken, children must understand

and remember what people owe to the past. Furthermore, Aiken rewrites historical

events to create

such an interest into the past, that the child reader will begin to explore their

own history and in so doing, both begin to preserve that past and use the

knowledge there acquired to inform their future decisions.121

Summing up, the knowledge of the past is useful to try to prefent future mistakes and

the rewriting of history stimulates the young reader's curiosity. Aiken's purpose is

partially shared also by Diana Wynne Jones who, through her novels, encouraged

children to be inquiring and to use their mind properly. Both in Aiken and in Jones's

novels, the interconnection between fiction and reality invites the reader to wonder

about the nature of events: what is the real truth? What has been created from the

author's imagination?

In the 70s also Penelope Lively, another influential children's author, has dealt

with the alternate history theme. Charles Butler, in his book Four British Fantasists,

examines in depth this theme: he starts from Diana Wynne Jones's idea of history as

something retrospective, and he uses it to compare and contrast Penelope Lively's idea

of history. He observes that even though the concept of alternative history plays a

relevant role also in Lively's production, the alternative worlds are only hypothesized

and are not concrete as they are in Jones's books. In A Stitch in Time (1976), specifically121 Dams, Isobel, “History Run Wild: The Alternate World of Joan Aiken's The Wolves of Willoughby

Chase series,” Children's Literature in Education, XXXVI, 2, (2005): 99-109.

78

in the chapter “The Day that Was Almost Entirely Different”, Lively deals with the

theme of contingency. Lively's alternate history does not provide a different version of

an historical event, on the contrary, it refers to events linked with characters' life. At the

beginning of this chapter, the main character Maria is speaking with her friend Martin

about a tapestry made in 1865, which was sewed by a girl who was eleven years old.

Maria is really impressed because she is eleven years old too and she wonders about the

destiny of that girl. Martin, pragmatically, affirms that she has grown up, got married

and now has children, but Maria has a different opinion. Indeed, she confides to her

friend that she thinks the girl is still there, but Martin's reaction is not what Maria has

expected. Martin says that believing that she is still there would mean that she is a

ghost, and he breaks off the discussion by saying that it is nonsense. In the second part

of the chapter, Maria wonders, once more, about the “what if?” theme. Indeed, during

an outing with Martin's family, something which might have happened but it did not

happen, deeply upsets Maria. Maria and Martin are watching a joust performance, when

James, who is Martin's little brother, crosses the performance area to reach his mother.

Luckily, the knights avoid the child who is unharmed. Maria is really shocked

and rather appalled at the speed with which the tragic other possibility- the

accident that did not happen- loses its grip on people's mind. For Maria, the

vivid imagination of what nearly happened gives it as much emotional reality

as the physical fact that everyone is going home happily and safely in the car

[...]122

Through Maria's eyes, Penelope Lively investigates and highlights the implications of

“what if?” theme. Maria has an extraordinary sensibility which prevents her from

forgetting what did not occur; thus she keeps wondering

“Why does one thing happen and not another?” Maria asks her father later

that day, still haunted by the ghostly might-have-been.123

Recently, this theme has been explicitly treated by Philip Pullman in his

Northern Lights (1995). Pullman's narrative method is really useful for the reader, who

122 Butler, Charles, Four British Fantasists: Place and Culture in the Children's Fantasies of PenelopeLively, Alan Garner, Diana Wynne Jones and Susan Cooper, Oxford, Scarecrow Press, Inc., 2006,p.70.

123 Lively, Penelope, A Stitch in Time, London, Mammoth, 1994, p.68.

79

gets in touch with Hellekson's theory of nexus stories. That is to say, by inserting a

useful example, Pullman allows the reader to understand clearly how history bifurcates.

Lord Asriel, who is one of the main characters, explains to his niece Lyra that each

world is the result of a possibility:

take the example of tossing a coin: it can come down heads or tails, and we do

not know before it lands which way it is going to fall. It if comes down heads,

that means the possibility of its coming down tails has collapsed. Until that

moment the two possibilities were equal. But on another world, it does come

down tails. And when that happens, the two worlds split apart. I am using the

example of tossing a coin to make it clearer. […] one moment several things

are possible, the next moment only one happens, and the rest do not exist.

Except that other worlds have sprung into being, on which they did happen.124

Even though the text does not say anything precisely about the period in which the

bifurcation has happened, it seems that the fracture has occurred in the 16th century.

Indeed, Calvin rather than setting up the Genevan theocracy, has become Pope by

causing in this way, the nonoccurrence of Reformation.

Catherine Butler examines Pullman's novel, and she observes that it can be considered

as Hellekson's true alternative history because Lyra's adventures happen long time after

the historical bifurcation. Butler analyses Northern Lights also by adopting Collin's

theory and she describes the novel as a plural uchronia, because the characters are

conscious that there are many other worlds. On the other hand, Butler highlights that if a

scholar chooses to adopt this theory, he/she will have some problems. The first issue is

linked with the differences between worlds. Indeed, the interconection of differences

between our world and Lyra's world is so essential that explaining it through the

nonoccurrence of the Reformation, is not enough. Another fundamental difference is

linked with daemons: in Lyra's world, every person has the concrete manifestation of

his/her souls in animal form. Furthermore, it is not strange that the text makes

references also to Adam and Eve's daemons.

For this to be an alternative world in the sense that Lord Asriel describes, the

nexus event must have occurred at the point far earlier in history, or more

likely pre-history. In that case, however, the problem of explaining how

124 Pullman, Philip, Northern Lights, London, Scholastic, 2005 p. 376-7.

80

Lyra's world and our world remain nevertheless so eerily similar in so many

respects appears insurmountable.125

Summing up,

the nexus event of Lyra's world is either too recent to account for the

differences between it and our own, or else too far in the past to account for

the similarities.126

Butler carries on with her examination, and she wonders about the accuracy of science-

fiction perspective in the analysis of alternative history, since Northern Lights is

considered a fantasy book. To this purpose, she analyses many aspects of the text, and

she observes that it is really difficult to interpret the novel univocally because the

generic features, proper of fantasy and science-fiction, are mixed. For instance, the

example of tossing a coin made by Lord Asriel, that we have analysed before, is

science-fictional; on the other hand, daemons can be considered proper of fantasy

literature. The reader understands soon that Lyra's world do not represent only the

“what if?” question, but it is a gloomy satire of our world and Christian religion. Indeed,

the novel builds a world in which the hegemony of Christian religion is total, a world in

which no other religions exist. On the other hand, this choice, in the eyes of alternative

history perspective, is an incongruity.

As we have discovered, Diana Wynne Jones is not the only author who changes

some important historical events; however, through her use of alternate history, she has

left a fundamental mark on contemporary children's literature. The reader gets in touch

for the first time, with alternative history, at the middle of Charmed Life, during Mr.

Saunders's class. Janet has just replaced Gwendolen when Mr. Saunders asks her some

questions about history.

“What do you mean, Henry the Fifth?” barked Mr. Saunders. “Richard the

Second was on the throne until after Agincourt. What was his greatest magical

achievement?”

“Defeating the French,” Janet guessed. Mr. Saunders looked so exasperated

125 Butler, Catherine, Reading History in Children's Books, Basingstoke, Hampshire, Macmillan, 2012, p.110.

126 Ibidem, p. 112.

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the she babbled, “Well, I think it was. [...]”

“Who,” said Mr. Saunders, “do you imagine won the Battle of Agincourt?”

“The English,” said Janet. This of course was true for her world, but the

panic-stricken look on her face as she said it suggested that she suspected the

opposite was true in this world. Which, of course, it was.

Mr. Saunders put his hands to his head. “No, no, no! The French! Do not

know anything, girl?!127

This quotation is really relevant because it highlights, once again, how the Related

Worlds are different from one another. Janet comes from our world and she shares our

version of history, whereas Cat and Mr. Saunders, who have lived since forever in

Series Eleven, have a different knowledge of historical events. Summing up, each

parallel world has its own history and the rewriting of past events can be considered as a

structural basis of Jones's multiverse since it offers the possibility to explore different

histories in different worlds. The differences between worlds, and therefore the

different histories, are so fundamental that they accompany the reader for all the series;

for this reason, it is not weird that also Flavian who is Christopher Chant's teacher,

reaffirms the links between worlds and histories. Indeed, during a class, he explains to

Christopher the origin of Related Worlds.

“Take Series Seven, which is a mountain Series. In prehistory, the earth's

crust must have buckled many more times than it did here. Or Series Five,

where all the land became islands, none of them larger than France. Now

these are the same right across the Series, but the course of history in each

world is different. It is history that makes the difference.. [...]”128

However, the book in which this theme is really fundamental to develop the story, is

Witch Week. As we have observed previously, this book is set in a world which should

not exist because it has been created erroneously. In this world, even though witchcraft

is illegal and punishable, there are a lot of witches and wizards. For this reason, some

children, who have been accused of practicing witchcraft, are forced to leave the school

and escape. They need help, so they evoke Chrestomanci.

127 Jones, Diana Wynne, The Chronicles of Chrestomanci: Charmed Life, New York, HarperCollins,2007, p.135.

128 Jones, Diana Wynne, The Chronicles of Chrestomanci: The Lives of Christopher Chant, New York,HarperCollins, 2007, p.422.

82

This is the best background for an alternate history, because in a world which should

not exist, every historical event can be modified, deleted or added and it is possible also

to create new historical characters. To this end, it is really interesting to highlight how

Jones's fictional characters are so plausible, and seem to be thoroughly real. The reader

gets in touch with an invented historical character, very soon, exactly in chapter four,

when Nan Pilgrim consults an encyclopedia to discover something more about his

ancestress Dulcinea Wilkes. Dulcinea Wilkes is so plausible because her description is

combined with a lot of complementary information: for instance, Nan's encyclopedia

says that Dulcinea was a very famous witch, born in Steeple in 1760, known also as the

Archwitch. She used to fly, with her broomstick, around both the Houses of Parliament

and St. Paul's and she was arrested and burned. Her capture and her death were

considered as symbols of Witchcraft fight and defeat.

History, or better, alternative history, fulfills a key role in the second part of the book

when Chrestomanci tries to help the children. First of all, Chrestomanci tries to figure

out in which Series he has been summoned, in which world he stands; for this purpose

[…] he asked about things from history. Before long, everyone was giving

him answers, and feeling a little superior, because it was really remarkable the

number of things that Chrestomanci seemed not to know. He had heard about

Hitler, though he asked Brian to refresh his memory about him, but he had

only the haziest notion about Gandhi or Einstein, and he had never heard of

Walt Disney or reggae. Nor had he heard of Dulcinea Wilkes.129

Chrestomanci is more and more disoriented because none of children's information is

useful to reconstruct the historical background and, consequently, to establish in which

Series they are. Chrestomanci keeps on looking for useful information, so he goes to the

Larwood House, the school attended by the children, and he pretends to be the

inquisitor. The inquisitor is the officer in charge of discovering who, among the

students, has used magic. Here, Chrestomanci speaks to Mr. Wentworth, the

headmaster, and he explains that there are more than one world. To clarify the concept,

he uses the Battle of Waterloo as an example

“[...] In our world, Napoleon lost it, but another world at once split off from

129 Jones, Diana Wynne, The Chronicles of Chrestomanci: Witch Week, New York, HarperCollins, 2007,p. 474-475.

83

ours, in which Napoleon won the battle.”

“Exactly,” said Chrestomanci. “I find that world a rather trying one. Everyone

speaks French there and winced at my accent. The only place they speak

English there, oddly enough, is in India, where they are ver British and eat

treacle pudding after their curry.”130

Pretending to be the inquisitor allows Chrestomanci to interview the students and, in

this way, he can obtain more precise information which can help him to establish where

he is. For instance, Chrestomanci asks Nan to name and to explain something about a

character out of history, but culturally important. Nan speaks about Christopher

Columbus and she becomes astonished when Chrestomanci seems not to know who

Columbus is. However, the most relevant and funniest example of history rewriting is

explained during a collective “conversation” in 6B, when Chrestomanci's attention is

captured by Estelle, who names Guy Fawkes.

“Can you tell me about Guy Fawkes?”

“[…] Guy Fawkes?” she said. “They put him on a bonfire for blowing up the

Houses of Parliament.”

“Blowing them up?” said Chrestomanci. “But Guy Fawkes never managed to

blow up Parliament in any world I ever heard of!”131

Chrestomanci looks so puzzled that Mr. Wentworth steps in and he explains that

“In 1605, Guy Fawkes was smuggled into the Parliament cellars with some

kegs of gunpowder, in order to blow up the government and the king. But he

seems to have made a mistake. The gunpowder blow up in the night and

destroyed both Houses, without killing anyone. Guy Fawkes got out unhurt,

but they caught him almost at once.”132

Contrary to Dulcinea Wilkes, Guy Fawkes is a real historical character and Mr.

Wentworth's description about him, is partially true. Guy Fawkes was actually, a

member of a group of English Catholics who wanted to kill King James I, in order to

restore a Catholic king and to re-establish, in this way, the “true religion.” However,

130 Ibidem, p.498.131 Ibidem, p. 525.132 Ibidem, p. 526.

84

even though Fawkes is considered as the most important conspirator, he was simply an

executor; the group of conspirators was composed also by Robert Catesby, Thomas

Percy, Thomas Winter, John Wright and Robert Keyes. Fawkes was truly responsible

for the explosive but he did not make a mistake: indeed, on 5th November 1605, while

he was patrolling the 36 barrels of gunpowder, he was discovered and arrested.

Summing up, the plot did not fail because of Fawkes's error but because an anonymous

letter apprised the authorities of the conspiracy.

4.1.1 Diana Wynne Jones and the Folkloric Tradition

As we have analysed, in Jones's The Chronicle of Chrestomanci, history plays a

very important role. However, even though Jones changes some crucial events, by

creating in this way an alternative history, she does not forget that folklore and cultural

tradition are indissolubly connected to history. This relationships is so strong because

both folklore and history are vehicles of inheritance. The term folklore was coined in

1846 by William Thoms to define the combination of legends, popular beliefs, music,

fairy tales, myths and oral history. Both history and folklore tell something about the

past, but folklore expresses events which are strictly related to common people, whereas

history speaks about the big events which have left a significative mark in the life of

human people. Obviously, the most important difference between history and folklore is

linked to the truthfulness: indeed, history explains objectively what has happened

whereas folkloristic narration, even though a lot of myths, common beliefs and legends

can be based on something real, is basically fictional. In other words, this fictional

feature can be due to the oral tradition which can twist the reality. For instance, an event

can suffer modifications because of sentimentalism, or because the storyteller is victim

of superstition. Summing up, history and folklore are vehicles of inheritance because

they transmit, to the new generations, cultural material.

Jones believed that mythology and folktales are important cultural references

which an author must pass on to the new generations. She also thought that her task was

to spread the best of British literature and the English language in the most amusing

way. She clarified this belief during a interview by taking food as an example. Indeed,

as happens with Japanese food, which is beautifully and perfectly presented, the author

must present mythology or elements of British literature, in the best way. Only in this

85

way, the people, who get in touch for the first time with these elements, will be

pleasantly impressed. In another interview Jones said that she used myths and folktales

also because

[…] there are times when everyday life echoes or embodies traditional stories.

[…] For one thing, the immense and meaningful weight of all myths and most

folktales could drag a more fragile, modern story out of shape: for another, I

do not find I use these things. They present themselves, either for inclusion or

as underlay, when the need arises […]133

Jones added also that the intensity of these folktales is due to their intuitive

characteristic, which invites the reader to go beyond the surface. In Eight Days of Luke

(1975), Jones re-interprets Norse mythology and Loki appears as a modern boy called

Luke. Jones has explained that she used

the days of the week, which have the names of the deities hidden in them and

yet presented to us on a daily basis, to try to express how the ancient and

chthonic things are in fact nearly always presented to everyone.134

Ten years later, Jones wrote Fire and Hemlock (1985) which is a sort of rewriting of

two famous ballads: Thomas the Rhymer and Tam Lin. Butler has compared this book

with Eight Days of Luke, and he observed that both novels, even though they were

written in two different decades, have similar problems of exposition. Furthermore, he

observed that in both books, the relationship between Mundane and Magic is not well

balanced.

The Chronicles of Chrestomanci is not a rewriting of a ballad and it does not

speak about Norse deities; however, there are folkloristic elements and references to the

tradition. In the Chrestomanci series, the common denominator is the figure of

Chrestomanci who, as we have observed before, is an employee of the British

Government, in charge of controlling and regulating the use of magic. Chrestomanci is a

potent enchanter and has nine lives. Chrestomanci's nine lives are, undoubtedly, an

important reference to folkloric tradition. The number nine has a key role in Christian

133 Jones, Diana Wynne, “The Profession of Science Fiction: Answers to Some Questions,” originallypublished in Foundation, LXX, 1997, [http://www.leemac.freeserve.co.uk/questions.htm, accessedDecember 2014].

134 Ibidem

86

tradition because it represents the divine perfection from the Father; that is to say, since

it is the result of the triplication of number three, which expresses Father, Son and Holy

Spirit, it represents the absolute completeness. Furthermore, it is considered the number

of mystery and in the Bible there is the reference to the nine choirs of Angels. The role

of this number, in Christian tradition, is really complex because it can be interpreted in

more than one way. For instance, nine is associated to life because the human pregnancy

lasts nine months, and, in the same context, it is also associated to suffering because the

birth happens with mother's pain. The number nine is not relevant only to Christian

tradition, effectively it has a key role also in Norse mythology, in which it symbolizes

unselfishness and obligation to others.

Nine is the number of worlds encompassed by the cosmic tree Yggdrasil, the

number of nights during which Odin hangs himself on the World Tree in a

Shamanistic myth related in Havamal, and the number of steps taken by Thor

before he dies after slaying in the mighty Midgard Serpent.135

In the decimal numbering system, nine is the last single number of the series and, for

this reason, it represents also the end of something or the death.

More simply, in Jones's series, Chrestomanci's nine lives symbolizes the popular belief

that cats have nine lives. This belief dates back to the Ancient Egyptians who venerated

cats as deities and associated them to the Mother Goddess, Isis. Moreover, Ancient

Egyptians used to represent Ra, who was the sun god, as a cat in the act of killing the

Serpent of Darkness. Cats are incredibly agile animals and, since they survived to falls,

Ancient Egyptians deduced that they have more than one life. However, this popular

certainty was reinforced, in Europe, during the Middle Ages when the existence of

witches began to spread and their nine lives where connected to witchcraft. From then

on, the folkloric tradition considered black cats and witches indissolubly linked. Black

cats are commonly defined as “familiars” which means that they personified demons

who performed witchcraft, in return for blood; moreover, many legends say that they

were given to witches directly by the devil or they were inherited by other witches.

Black cats were considered witches' best partners due to their ability to move shiftily

into the dark and due to their nine lives. Indeed, folktales and storybooks spread the

rumour that a witch can take on the shape of her familiar for nine times. This belief was135 Strmiska, Michael, Modern Paganism in World Cultures: Comparative Perspectives, Santa Barbara,

California, ABC-CLIO, Inc., 2005, p. 145.

87

mentioned also in Beware of the cat, a gothic horror book published in 1584.

The close relationship between witchcraft and cats is a recurring element in the

whole Chrestomanci series. Jones's cats are not handsome and tame, often they are

choleric; moreover, they are not considered as simply pets, but they are tools of magic

and knowledge. Even though cats are not the main characters, they are present in almost

every book of the series. That is to say, even though the adventures narrated do not

concern cats directly, they fulfill the important role of magical helper. The reader's

awareness of their hidden importance, little by little, increases thanks to some clues

disseminated throughout the text.

In Charmed Life (1977), the first clue is Eric Chant's nickname, known by everybody as

Cat. Furthermore, it is really interesting that Cat, who is a nine lives enchanters, stores

unconsciously one of his lives exactly in a cat. At the beginning of the book, Cat does

not know anything about his nature and his power, whereas his unscrupulous sister,

Gwendolen, is aware of his nature and she uses Cat's magic. Gwendolen has put also

Cat's lives in a book of matches and, in this way, she is responsible for some of Cat's

deaths.

“ […] He lost one being born an another being drowned. And I used one to

put in the book of matches. […] Then that toad tied up in silver there would

not give me magic lessons and took my witchcraft away, so I had to fetch

another of Cat's lives in the night. […] Oh, I nearly forgot! I put his fourth life

into that violin he kept playing, to turn it into a cat -Fiddle- remember, Mr.

Nostrum?”

[…] “You are a foolish girl! Someone took that cat away. We can not kill him

at all!”136

Also in The Lives of Christopher Chant (1988), there is a close relationship between the

main characters and cats. The first time that Christopher gets in touch with a magic cat,

is at The Temple of Asheth in Series Ten, during a night journey with Tacroy, on behalf

of Christopher's Uncle. Indeed, Uncle Ralph wants to obtain one of the cats belonging

to the Temple, so he persuades his nephew to bring a cat. Obviously, Uncle Ralph does

not reveal his real wicked purpose, and he deceives Christopher by saying that, in this

way, they are making an experiment. Christopher passes through a wall and he sees a lot

136 Jones, Diana Wynne, The Chronicles of Chrestomanci: Charmed Life, New York, HarperCollins,2007, p. 238.

88

of cats which are running away, because of the noise he has made. He decides to follow

a white cat, the slowest one, and he finds himself face to face with the Living Asheth.

They chat for a while, then the Living Asheth gives a cat to Christopher in return for

books to read. The cat, with yellow eyes and ginger fur, is named Throgmorten. The

following morning, Christopher realizes that Uncle Ralph's purpose is not making an

experiments but he wants to use its magical properties, so Christopher decides to free

the cat. Some time later, when he is already living in Chrestomanci's castle, Christopher

recognizes Throgmorten's meow and Flavian, his teacher, explains that nobody knows

how the cat has reached Series Eleven.

“Careful!” said Flavian, prudently backing behind Christopher. “It is an

Asheth Temple cat. It is safest not to go near it.”

[...[ How did it get there?” Christopher said, letting Throgmorten politely

investigate his hand.

“Nobody knows-at least not how it wandered in here from Series Ten,”

Flavian said. “Mordecai found it in London, brave man, and he brought it here

in a basket. He recognized it by its aura, and he said if he could, then most

wizards do too, and they would kill it for its magical properties. Most of us

think that would not be much loss, but Gabriel agreed with Mordecai.”137

Since Christopher has brought Throgmorten in Series Eleven, they seem to be

connected. It is not acoincidence that Throgmorten and Christopher meet again: indeed

Mordecai is none other than Tacroy and he knows exactly how the cat has changed its

world. However, Christopher and Throgmorten become friends and the cat, at the end of

the book, will be a very useful helper to defeat Uncle Ralph.

In The Magicians of Caprona (1980), the cat Benvenuto is not a secondary character but

it is has a key role in the development of the story. Benvenuto is Casa Montana's boss

cat, it is really intelligent and magical. Each component of the family respects the cat

and its nature is expressed also by its names, which in Italian means welcome.

He was not a handsome cat. His head was unusually wide and blunt, with gray

gnarled patches on it left over from many, many fights. Those fights had

pulled his ears down over his eyes, so that Benvenuto always looked as if he

137 Jones, Diana Wynne, The Chronicles of Chrestomanci: The Lives of Christopher Chant, New York,HarperCollins, 2007, p. 426.

89

were wearing a ragged brown cap. A hundred bites had left those ears notched

like holly leaves. Just over his nose, giving his face a leering, lopsided look,

were three white patches.138

Benvenuto, like all the cats in this book, can cast spells and it can interact with some

members of the family. Specifically, Benvenuto has a special connection with Old

Niccolo and Tonino who understand its language. When Tonino is kidnapped,

Benvenuto does all that it can, to help the family to find and rescue the boy. More

precisely, Benvenuto allys with Victoria, the white cat belonging to Casa Petrocchi;

moreover, when it discovers that Tonino and Angelica Petrocchi are imprisoned in

Duke's castle, goes inside and tries to help the children by storing in its mouth a

message to deliver. At the end of the book, when the Duchess is defeated and she has

lost her human shape in favour of a rat shape, the two cats obtain their revenge.

Besides the references to the nine lives of cats and the relationship between

witchcraft and cats, in Charmed Life, Jones played with another folkloric belief, linked

with superstition. Indeed, approximately at the middle of the book, the reader discovers

that Eric Chant is left-handed but he is accustomed to use the right hand because

“They-they punish me if I do,” Cat faltered, very shaken and very perplexed

to find Mr. Saunders was angry for such a peculiar reason.

“Then they deserve to be tied up in knots and roasted!” roared Mr Saunders,

“whoever they are! You are doing yourself untold harm by obeying them,

boy! If I catch you writing with your right hand again, You will be in very

serious trouble!”139

It is really funny that in a world in which magic is normal, there are people who believe

that being left-handed is a sign of witchcraft and connection to the evil forces. Indeed,

in popular culture, being a left-handed person was considered the incontrovertible

evidence of a connection to Satan. This belief started presumably during the Middle

Ages, when the fear for witchcraft spread quickly and left-handed people were

persecuted. The origin of this belief is partially due to the etymology of the word

sinister. Indeed in the Latin of late 15th century, sinister signified the left side of

138 Jones, Diana, Wynne, The Chronicles of Chrestomanci: The Magicians of Caprona, New York,HarperCollins, 2007, p. 15.

139 Jones, Diana Wynne, The Chronicles of Chrestomanci: Charmed Life, New York, HarperCollins,2007, p. 56.

90

something but also indicated an evil omen. Over the centuries, the English word sinister

has lost its first meaning in favour of the second one. That is to say, nowadays, sinister

means something which suggests the evil or troubles.

All the series demonstrates a grass-roots great coherence, indeed the theme of

time is present wherever and whenever. In other words, time is not conceived only

under a time travel perspective or as the responsible of a splitting worlds, but it is also

treated through the integration of popular believes. Witchcraft is not only well

integrated into the plot, on the contrary, is one of the fundamental ideas of the whole

series. In Chrestomanci series there is a witch's reshaping and wands and broomsticks

fall into disuse. It is very curious that the only reference to broomsticks appears in

Witch Week, which is the only book of the series, to be set in world in which magic is

forbidden. Moreover, it is paradoxical that even if the story seems to be set in the

contemporaneity, the attitude towards witchcraft is absolutely old. In other words,

magic is considered an evil practice and witches are hunted, as happened many

centuries ago. Obviously, not all the characters reject magic, there is someone who

appreciates witchcraft and nourishes the desire to practice magic freely. For instance,

Charles Morgan, who when he was a child helped a witch to escape, knows his own

nature and knows he is a witch. Apparently, he dislikes magic but privately he casts

spells. One night, when he is alone, he burns his fingers as a warning. In other words, he

burns his finger because if someone discovers his nature and he is captured, then he will

remember the pain that he had felt. Another character who does not reject magic is Nan

Pilgrim. Nan descends from Dulcinea Wilkes, the famous Archwitch who was burned

and became the symbol of the fight against witches. Nan is proud to descend from

Dulcinea but she fears to admit it and to discover that she is a witch too. She hides her

identity and true name, which is Dulcinea as her ancestor, because she wants to protect

herself from unfair accusations; however she is derided and accused by her mates.

“We can prove you are a witch anyway, if you will not,” Theresa said kindly.

“Yes, everyone knows that witches do not drown,” said Delia. “You can put

them right under water and they stay alive”.

[…] “You know perfectly well,” Nan said, “that I am not a witch, and I cannot

fly on this broomstick. It is just an excuse to be nasty!”140

140 Jones, Diana Wynne, The Chronicles of Chrestomanci: Witch Week, New York, HarperCollins, 2007,p. 393.

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Here, Delia, to accuse Nan, uses another common stereotype which was considered an

evidence during the trials. Also King James VI, in his book Daemonologie (1599),

referred to the impossibility to drown for a witch and explained the origin of this belief.

He said that water, which is vehicle of Baptism, rejects all witches because they are

sinners and it proves, in this way, their guilt.

It is really interesting that here, there is the combination of two important themes: one is

linked to folkloric beliefs and the other is linked to the desire to be accepted. Butler has

examined in depth this theme and he has proposed an interpretation which raises the

issue of the racial difference

[…] Witch Week is a fantasy about the necessity of acknowledging one's

whole nature and the dangers of repression. The hysterical anti-witch laws of

the Witch Week world are clearly aimed at demonizing an unacknowledged

facet of many of its citizens, and making what many fear to be a deeply

unsettling potential within themselves into an external taboo.141

Jones reinforces her relationship with tradition, by making a reference also to

Halloween, which is considered the most powerful night of the year. Halloween is the

most important festivity for the Anglo-Saxons, and it is celebrated on October 31st

which is the last day of Celtic calendar. It is said, exactly, that this festivity hails from

the ancient festival of Samhain in which people lighted bonfire to honour the souls of

the dead and to keep them away from the living people.

Besides witchcraft, cats, superstition and beliefs, Jones fosters her relationship

with English tradition by proposing an adaptation of Romeo and Juliet (1594-96), in her

The Magicians of Caprona (1980). Indeed, the novel speaks about two great Italian

families, Montana and Petrocchi, which are trying to prevent the decline of Caprona,

their city. As in Romeo and Juliet, the Montanas and the Petrocchis have been deadly

enemies for generations and, any time is a good time to fight, threatening in this way the

precarious peace of Caprona. Exactly as happens in Shakespeare's tragedy, two

members of these two families, Rosa Montana and Marco Petrocchi, fall in love.

Initially, they are forced to keep their relationship secret because neither family would

accept their love. Obviously, as Lady Capulets wants Juliet to marry Paris, also Rosa

141 Butler, Charles, Four British Fantasists: Place and Culture in the Children's Fantasies of PenelopeLively, Alan Garner, Diana Wynne Jones and Susan Cooper, Oxford, Scarecrow Press, Inc., 2006, p.139.

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suffers her family pressures in order to marry someone they approve of. Rosa is an

independent girl who, unlike to Juliet, does not want to marry someone who she does

not love, only to please her family. To live their relationship openly, Rosa and Marco

decide to meet each family, by pretending to be someone else.

[…] Rosa contrived a family first. She pretended to be English. She became

very friendly with the English girl at the Art Gallery […]. Jane Smith thought

it was a great joke to pretend to Rosa's sister. […] They used the pear-tree

spell-which they work together-in both Casas, to Jane's amusements. But the

Petrocchis, though they liked the pear-tree, were not kind to Rosa at first.142

Marco is welcomed by Rosa's family with curiosity and, when he presents himself as

Marco Andretti, makes a good impression on the Montanas. It is really curious that

Antonio Montana asks Marco if he will agree to change his surname, to Montana, after

the weeding. This is a clear reference to the famous Shakespeare's scene two of act two,

in which Juliet asks Romeo to repudiate his name in favour of their love. On the other

hand, the book is full of references to Shakespeare's tragedy, disseminated through all

the text. For instance, Jones sets her novel in Caprona, a city ruled by a Duke, whose

name echoes Verona. This is not the only names which sound like one of Shakespeare's

tragedy: indeed the name of Benvenuto, the cat of casa Montana, is similar to Benvolio,

the nephew of Montague.

As I said before, this is an adaptation to the original Romeo and Juliet, even though,

Jones's story ends happily with the marriage between Marco and Rosa and

consequently, with peace between the two families.

[…] the wedding was held just after Christmas […] in casa Petrocchi. Jane

Smith helped Rosa make her dress and was a bridesmaid for her, together with

Renata, Angelica and one of Marco's cousins.143

In an interview, Jones explained that her books always have a happy ending because,

since they are conceived as tools to deal with difficult themes, she wants to mark that

there is always hope.

142 Jones, Diana, Wynne, The Chronicles of Chrestomanci: The Magicians of Caprona, New York,HarperCollins, 2007, p. 266.

143 Ibidem, p. 266-267.

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Another important element which highlights the relationship between Diana

Wynne Jones and the literary tradition, is the strong presence of intertextuality. The

reader can find the two most obvious examples in The Lives of Christopher Chant, in

which there is the reference to books for girls and also to The Arabian Nights (1706).

Indeed, as we have observed before, Christopher exchanges one of Goddess's cats with

books. These books are books for girls which are about the adventures of a young girl

called Millie, and are defined by literary critics as school stories. School stories became

very popular in the first half of twentieth century and a schools story is none other than

[…] a story in which most of the action centres on a school, usually a single-

sex boarding school. [...] A school story offers a setting in which young

people are thrown together and in which relationships between older and

younger children, between members of the peer group and between children

and adults can be explored. […] The boys' story and the girls' story have

developed in parallel, but separately, because they have reflected educational

development in the real world.144

School stories are typical of British literature for children because they reflect the

differences of classes in British school system.

Christopher buys Millie's book for the Goddess, and with the rest of the money, he buys

The Arabian Nights for himself. The Arabian Nights, also known as “One Thousand

and One Night,” is a collection of Oriental tales, legends and myths published in

England in 1706. Since its publication, this book has raised, in Britain, a great interest

towards Oriental culture and also nowadays is highly appreciated. This book is so

important for English literature because it has inspired influential authors as Defoe and

Kipling. In The Lives of Christopher Chant, this book becomes a good companion to

Christopher. Moreover, it stimulates his fantasy and absorbs completely his attention.

However, The Arabian Nights has so inspired Jones, who read it during her childhood,

that its stories have become the basis for Castle in Air (1990), another Jones's book.

144 Ray, Sheila, “School Stories,” in Peter Hunt (.ed), International Companion Encyclopedia ofChildren's Literature, Oxon, Routledge Taylor and Francis Group, 2004. p. 467.

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5 Conclusion

In the course of my dissertation I focused on the complexity of themes and

rhetorical devices which lay behind The Chronicles of Chrestomanci. Specifically, I

examined each aspect linked with time and its modifications.

I touched on Diana Wynne Jones's biography to highlight that her background

and her experiences have deeply influenced her career. I read some interviews, and I

discovered that her childhood was marked by frequent moves due to the war. Probably,

Jones was a little traumatized by all these moves which had an effect also on her

characters. That is to say, since some of Jones's characters are orphans and some others

have a difficult relationship with their parents, their main purpose is the search for

stability. Basically, they are desperately looking for a normal family, capable of love

and protection. For this reason, their home does not represent a safe refuge and it does

not reassure the child. In other words, Jones's children must protect themselves

metaphorically and physically because both their parents and their home cannot do this.

Jones was a brilliant student and her passion for literature allowed her to get in contact

with some important authors, as Carroll and Ransome. Without a doubt, the feature of

Jones's biography, which is more useful to understand some of her narrative choices, is

her attendance of Tolkien and Lewis classes at Oxford. As we have observed, Tolkien

and Lewis have deeply inspired Jones, who created Chrestomanci's world, by taking the

cue from her mentors.

I investigated the different conceptions of time in literature, recalling also the

origin of time, and I realised that speaking of time without mentioning time travels

would be a terrible mistake. The fundamental question, at the basis of time travel,

concerns the way in which someone moves in time and space. The answer to this

question is linked with Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity. This theory has,

undoubtedly, deeply inspired more science-fiction authors, who used it as a starting

point, than fantasy authors. Thus, if we compare these two kinds of literature, we can

observe that in science-fiction the main focus is on time travel , whereas fantasy fiction

does not explain, rationally and scientifically, the mechanisms of time travel. Although,

Diana Wynne Jones was a versatile author, who ranged from science-fiction to fantasy

fiction by mixing the typical features of these two genres, her most popular time

traveller embodies only elements belonging to fantasy fiction.

95

Even though fantasy fiction and science-fiction, have two different approaches to speak

about time travel, they share some common themes and the most important one, is about

the logical paradox. All the implications connected to the repercussions of the alteration

of past and future, are largely treated by Jones in her Witch Week (1982) and in The

Lives of Christopher Chant (1988).

I have became aware that is impossible speaking of time without speaking of space

because of the indissoluble relationship that exists among them. This relationship is

called time-space continuum. Farah Mendleshon has analysed in details this relationship

in two Jones's novels: The Magicians of Caprona (1980) and Conrad's Fate (2005). She

has observed that, in The Magicians of Caprona, the construction of time travel is

possible thanks to some experiments with tenses and rhetorical structures; moreover,

she has observed also that the time-space relationship goes hand-in-hand with the past-

present relationship. In Conrad's Fate, the time-space relationship concentrates almost

only on spatial changes without using flashbacks or other rhetoric devices, to modify

the time. Obviously, space is a really complex entity and many philosophers,

mathematicians, physics and psychologists have tried to define it. However, these

definitions have suffered many changes and nowadays, space is associated with place

because, together, they establish the basis of modern geography. Conrad's fate is really

a modern novel which brings into question the geography of the world, through

morphological changes of mountains and borders.

The discovery of relativity and quantum physics led on to a new conception of

physics, which wonders about the existence of other worlds. This query has become a

very important theme also in fantasy literature, and J.R.R Tolkien and C. S. Lewis have

created the two most influential parallel worlds. These two prestigious authors, who are

considered pioneers of modern fantasy fiction, deeply influenced some authors as

Garner, Copper, Le Guin, Pullman and, obviously, Diana Wynne Jones. Indeed, Jones

has created a limitless multiverse, originating from the division of important historical

events, which is the main theme of The Chronicles of Chrestomanci. Jones's multiverse

offers a lot of possible subjects of discussion and Maria Nikolajeva proposes an analysis

of multiverse following an heterotopic approach.

It is really interesting that Jones's multiverse allows the reader to get in touch

with alternative histories, exploring and living another version of a key historical event.

The reader is amused when, in Charmed Life, he or she reads that the French have won

the Battle of Agincourt or when in Witch Week, he or she learns that Guy Fawkes has

96

blowen up the Houses of Parliament. Jones does not play only with history, by altering

past events, but she uses also myths, legends and popular beliefs. That is to say, in all

the Chrestomanci books, there is a reference to a certain belief or a certain tradition,

typical of English culture, which marks Jones's relationship to her roots.

Summing up, through this dissertation, I want to demonstrate that Diana Wynne

Jones was a talented author who gave an important contribution to modern children's

fantasy. Specifically, she rewrote the rules of fantasy by creating a new fantasy area

called urban fantasy, and she inspired important authors as Philip Pullman, Neil Gaiman

and J. K. Rowling. Moreover, even though the Chrestomanci's books apparently are

simple and cheerful, they hide a multitude of important topics, and time is one of them.

97

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